It first appears in the 1832 specimens from the British Thorowgood foundry. The old story I’ve read suggests that people applied the term disparagingly and it entered common use.

I've heard similar stories on how some sans-serif type came to be called "Gothic", though that may also have been a false dilemma analogy comparing type to "Romanesque" and "Gothic" architecture, and in seeing that the type wasn't "Roman" it must therefore be the other.

What I know from Germany:

The germans were used to see only Fraktur fonts in their books, newspapers, ads etc. or - sometimes Antiqua fonts. So the "grotesque" outfit of Grotesk fonts was something very new for them. May be they understood it (or it was planned to make them understand it) as a revolutionary new and grotesque form of font.

Georg
_______________________________________________
„Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt Ihr meine Farben...“

The first sans serif typeface was the Caslon Egyptian, in 1816 (not 1832). At this time, the renowned typographers were using Bodoni, Didot and so on; they considered these new faces, lacking sophisticated serifs and sporting a boring fixed width, with horror and disregard for a very long time, and started calling them "gothic" and "grotesque" in order to mock them; both terms were references to the middle age. At this time, everything which originated from the middle age (architecture, litterature, calligraphy) was considered the pinnacle of ugliness and was very much disregarded - Louis XIV even wanted to redecorate the front face of Notre Dame in Paris, but had to cancel his plans (for he had not enough money to do so). Therefore, the terms "Gothic" (a reference to the architecture of Middle Age) and "Grotesque" (which until this era was the name of the monstrous little heads carved in wood on middle age houses, before turning into an adjective) were very much probably, at the beginning, destined to mockery.

dr

The Wikipedia entry for sans-serif has many of the early names used for this category, with an explanation of each term's origin.

both terms were references to the middle age

I don't think that's precisely right. From the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms: GROTESQUE [French, from the Italian grottesco] a term used to describe a type of European ornament composed of small, loosely connected motifs including scrollwork, architectural elements, whimsical human figures, and fantastic beasts, often organized vertically round a central axis. The original inspiration for such ornament was provided by the archaeological excavations undertaken at the end of the 15th century of the ancient Roman interiors of the Domus Aurea of Nero and of other villas in Rome and Naples. These revealed a hitherto unknown side of Roman art in the playful decorations found in the underground rooms (grotte) of these buildings. They were soon copied by Italian artists and their designs were disseminated in the form of prints. The use of grotesque decoration spread throughout Europe in the 16th century. Raphael incorporated it into his decoration of the Vatican Loggia (1518–19) and in France it constituted one of the main achievements of the FONTAINEBLEAU SCHOOL. In the 18th century there was a strong revival of interest in grotesque ornament, both in the development of the ROCOCO style, and in the renewed exploration of Roman domestic decoration following the publication in 1752 of the recent excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

So in source and original intent, "grotesque" is better described as a playful/decorative side of classical art rather than a reference to the medieval era.

And while Louis XIV was certainly a classicist in his preferences, he was long dead by the time "gothic" (sans) types were so called, at which point projects like the Houses of Parliament in London would seem to introduce doubt to the idea that "gothic" implied disparagement.

Inferring mockery also seems strange when the terms were used by foundries for the types they themselves manufactured and wanted to sell.

This question has puzzled me for a while. Both "Gothic" and "Grotesque" are among the terms slated on my agenda for my current research project on typographical terminology, but I have not yet gotten very far on those two.

The Wikipedia entry for sans-serif has many of the early names used for this category, with an explanation of each term’s origin.

Including references back to Typophile!

...horror and disregard...

A sweeping statement not borne out by the facts.
The facts being that London founders in the 1830s were not unwilling victims of the new diversity in type styles for job printing, and readily supplied all sorts. The Caslon & Livermore catalog of 1837, for instance, showed fifteen pages of bold, condensed, all cap, sans serif fonts.

Inferring mockery also seems strange...

But don't discount humour in typographic terminology of the early 19th century.
It was, after all, a time when the bon mot was in fashion, from Beau Brummel down.
Thomas Love Peacock's hilarious Nightmare Abbey (1818) demonstrated that the Gothic was fertile ground for satire.

Similarly, I suspect that the type size Bourgeois, referring to a middle-sized type, was a witticism.
David, was that term ever used in France to describe a type size?

So "grotesque", used to describe a style of type, could have been a grandiloquent reference to the grotto from whence came this primitive style, according to James Mosley in his seminal work on the subject, The Nymph and the Grot.

Self-deprecating humour has a long history in type specimens. For instance, from Fry, 1828:

IMPERFECTIONS
EXPEDITED

If you want to take "grotesque" quite literally, it could be compared with the recent type terminology "grunge".

Wonderful insight, Nick.

grunge

That is a helpful analogy.

Wow, Nick, that was interesting. I will also dig a little bit deeper in finding out the exact truth about these terms, if it is possible of course (but I think it is not, unfortunately). I still believe that the terms originated in mockery or humour, as you imply, for brits are famous for their inner and very specific sense of humor / cynicism. I would not be surprised at all to find out that the foundries of Caslon and co. were selling typefaces that they would themselves name with circus-like names. I know where the word Grotesque comes from, but I highly doubt that the Thorogwood foundry was aware of the italian history of the term. I think they simply considered this rough, unelegant type "grotesque" or "gothic", as in, precisely, medieval. Of course "greek" would have actually been more accurate, but at this time accuracy was not the most important ("egyptian" were everything but, well, egyptian).

To answer you, Nick, about the Bourgois term: as far as I know (but I am very far from knowing everything), no, it was not used for sizes. The terms I am aware of are:

Diamant (3 pt)
Perle or Sédanoise (4 pt)
Parisienne (5 pt)
Nonpareille (6 pt)
Mignonne (7 pt)
Gaillarde (8 pt)
Petit-romain (9 pt)
Philosophie (10 pt)
Cicéro (11 pt)
Saint-Augustin (12 or 13 pt)
Gros-texte (14 pt)
Gros-romain (15 or 16 pt)
Petit-parangon (18 or 20 pt)
Gros-parangon (21 or 22 pt)
Palestine (24 pt)
Petit-canon (28 or 32 pt)
Trismégiste (36 pt)
Gros-canon (40 or 44 pt)
Double-canon (48 or 56 pt)
Triple-canon (72 pt)
Grosse-nonpareille (96 pt)

I wish one day Quark releases a custom old school Xpress version using only those poetic terms in the size column :-)

dr

Thanks David, such beautiful names!

So if the size "bourgeois" has an English, rather than French origin, it may allude to class matters, a middling size of type being appropriate for the reading material of good burgers who were not as profligate with resources as the wealthy with their big books printed in big type, nor as penny-pinching as the poor, forced to read tiny type to economize on paper.

...the terms originated in mockery or humour,

Right. If the upper crust Hansard, in his worthy tome Typographia

Thomas Ford, in the "Compositor's Handbook," (London, 1854) tells us that "Bourgeois" is another name for the 8 pt "Galliarde" cited in David's list above. See pp 209 ff.

http://books.google.com/books?id=qJIDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA211&lpg=PA211&dq=bour...

As old as I am am, names were not used for sizes when I started setting type. But I do recall knowing from early years that "Bourgeois" did in fact denote a type size.

powers (petit bourgeois)

The OED entry for bourgeois:

A size of printing type between Long Primer and Brevier. [Conjectured to be from the name of a French printer or type-founder.]
Examples given: 1824 J. Johnson Typogr. II. ii. 16 Two lines of some Diamond will answer to one of Bourgeois. 1852 W. Wilks Half Century Pref., Twenty-three sheets of bourgeois leaded.

James Mosley's blog entry on sizes puts the adoption of numerical systems over the old names at the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. So yes, Will, you would have been quite young then, right? ;-)

The linked entry also has more on international equivalents of names, as well as some venturing on the source of some of the names (but not "bourgeois").

powers (petit bourgeois)
:-) "(nonpareil)" would also have been appropriate!