different between grotty vs grotto

English

Clipping of grotesque +? -y. Compare American grody, of same origin. Possibly influenced by Scottish Gaelic grod (“rotten, putrid”).

grotty (comparative grottier, superlative grottiest)

(slang, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) unpleasant, dirty, slovenly or offensive

From Italian grotta, from Vulgar Latin grupta, from Classical Latin crypta. Doublet of crypt.

grotto (plural grottos or grottoes)

A small cave.
An artificial cavern-like retreat.
A Marian shrine, usually built in a cavern-like structure.
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.
(Satanism) A secretive name for a local group of underground Satanists.

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