Did the word "crass" come from Crassus?

[Ann Marie Brest]

I just listened to the video about Crassus' last battle:

The video mentions the "Partian Shot" but not where the word "crass" comes
from. Yet, based on that video, Crassus *was* crass.

Is he the namesake for the term?

[Mark Brader]

I just listened to the video about Crassus' last battle...
The video mentions the "Partian Shot" but not where the word
"crass" comes from. Yet, based on that video, Crassus *was* crass.
Is he the namesake for the term?

Crassus was a family name; there wasn't just one person with that name.
Wikipedia has articles on several members of the family.

However, "crassus" was also an ordinary Latin word with meanings like
"thick", "dense", "solid", "heavy", "dull", "uneducated". How a word
like that became a family name as well, I don't know -- maybe someone
thought that being solid sounded good, or maybe someone was given that
nickname and just stuck with it. Anyway, dictionaries agree that our
word "crass" is derived from the ordinary word "crassus".

[CDB]

Post by Mark Brader

I just listened to the video about Crassus' last battle... The
video mentions the "Partian Shot" but not where the word "crass"
comes from. Yet, based on that video, Crassus *was* crass.
Is he the namesake for the term?

Crassus was a family name; there wasn't just one person with that
name. Wikipedia has articles on several members of the family.
However, "crassus" was also an ordinary Latin word with meanings like
"thick", "dense", "solid", "heavy", "dull", "uneducated". How a word
like that became a family name as well, I don't know -- maybe someone
thought that being solid sounded good, or maybe someone was given
that nickname and just stuck with it. Anyway, dictionaries agree
that our word "crass" is derived from the ordinary word "crassus".

A lot of Roman names seem to have begun as nicknames. Servius (slavey),
Cicero (warty), Scaevola (lefty).

Of course, there's an extensive article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_names

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Post by CDB

Post by Mark Brader

I just listened to the video about Crassus' last battle... The
video mentions the "Partian Shot" but not where the word "crass"
comes from. Yet, based on that video, Crassus *was* crass.
Is he the namesake for the term?

Crassus was a family name; there wasn't just one person with that
name. Wikipedia has articles on several members of the family.
However, "crassus" was also an ordinary Latin word with meanings like
"thick", "dense", "solid", "heavy", "dull", "uneducated". How a word
like that became a family name as well, I don't know -- maybe someone
thought that being solid sounded good, or maybe someone was given
that nickname and just stuck with it. Anyway, dictionaries agree
that our word "crass" is derived from the ordinary word "crassus".

A lot of Roman names seem to have begun as nicknames. Servius (slavey),
Cicero (warty), Scaevola (lefty).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_names

which links to another article
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Iulius_Caesar_(name)) that gives
various theories of the origin of "Caesar" -- some but not all of them
nicknames.

[Stan Brown]

Post by Ann Marie Brest
http://youtu.be/SKojtyjPKWM
The video mentions the "Partian Shot" but not where the word "crass" comes
from. Yet, based on that video, Crassus *was* crass.
Is he the namesake for the term?

AHD4 derives "crass" from "Latin crassus, dense."

Why Crassus was named Crassus might be an interesting tale.