grotto

grotto

English

WOTD – 23 April 2009

Etymology

Italian grotta, from Vulgar Latin grupta, from Classical Latin crypta; see crypt.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɒt.əʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɑ.toʊ/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɒtəʊ

Noun

grotto (plural grottos or grottoes)

1. A small cave.
2. An artificial cavern-like retreat.
3. A Marian shrine, usually built in a cavern-like structure.
4. A local organization of cavers that typically organizes trips to caves and provides information and training for caving; a caving club.
   • 1987, National Speleological Society, NSS News, vol. 45-46, p.331:

     An earlier attempt to organize a grotto in the Indiana, PA, area in the mid-1970s failed to succeed, but from it developed the informal Chestnut Ridge Explorers Association.

   • 2004, Anthony D. Barnosky, Biodiversity Response to Climate Change in the Middle Pleistocene: The Porcupine Cave Fauna from Colorado:

     By the mid-1940s members of local grottos (regional clubs of cavers within the National Speleological Society) were exploring Porcupine Cave (Bloch, 1946).

   • 2008, Neil Miller, Kartchner Caverns: How Two Cavers Discovered and Saved One of the Wonders of the Natural World:

     The answer to the question, “Are there any caves in Arizona?” was always the laconic “None to speak of,” with emphasis on the “to speak of.” This secrecy dovetailed with the cave conservation ethic promoted by the local caving grotto.

5. A secretive name for a local group of underground Satanists.

Derived terms

• grot
• Santa's grotto

Translations

small cave

Afrikaans: grot (af) Arabic: غَار‎ m (ḡār), مَغَارَة‎ f (maḡāra) Bulgarian: пещера (bg) f (peštera) Catalan: gruta f Chinese: Mandarin: 石窟 (zh) (shíkū) Czech: jeskyňka (cs) f Danish: grotte (da) c Dutch: grot (nl) Esperanto: groto Finnish: luola (fi) French: grotte (fr) f German: Grotte (de) f Icelandic: hellir (is) m Istriot: gruota f Italian: grotta (it) f, caverna (it) f, santuario (it) m

Japanese: 岩屋 (いわや, iwaya), 洞穴 (ja) (どうけつ, dōketsu) Latin: caverna f Malay: Rumi: groto (ms) Persian: غار‎ (fa) (ğâr), مغاره‎ (fa) (mağâre) Polish: grota (pl) f Portuguese: gruta (pt) f Romanian: grotă (ro) f Russian: грот (ru) m (grot) Spanish: gruta (es) f Swedish: grotta (sv) c Tagalog: gruta Venetian: grota f

artificial cavern-like retreat

Chinese: Mandarin: please add this translation if you can Czech: grotta (cs) f Danish: grotte (da) c Finnish: luola (fi)

French: grotte (fr) f German: Grotte (de) f Portuguese: gruta (pt) f Spanish: gruta (es) f Swedish: grotta (sv) c