rough, thick

粗 is composed of 米(rice) and 且(and, yet). 且 is the pictograph of a chopping board; in ancient times, the chopping board was not only used for cutting meat but also to hold sacrificial offerings, so 粗 originally conveyed the idea of using rice as an offering. The ancients regarded ancestor worship as a major affair and mostly used meat for sacrifices; offering rice instead was therefore seen as simple or crude. Thus 粗 came to mean not fine or refined, and by extension, it also refers to something coarse, thick, or large.