grey
English
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Color_icon_gray_v2.svg/200px-Color_icon_gray_v2.svg.png)
Alternative forms
- gray (often used in the US)
Etymology
From Middle English grey, from Old English grǣġ, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (compare Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”) (compare Latin rāvus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”)).
Pronunciation
Adjective
grey (comparative greyer or more grey, superlative greyest or most grey)
- British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
- 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:
- These grey and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.
- (South Africa, slang) Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).[1]
Derived terms
- all cats are grey at night
- all cats are grey by night
- all cats are grey in the dark
- ash-grey
- ash grey
- battleship-grey
- battleship grey
- blue-grey
- brain grey
- cadet grey
- code grey
- cool grey
- dove grey
- eastern grey kangaroo
- French grey
- get grey hair from
- give grey hair to
- give someone grey hair
- great grey owl
- great grey shrike
- grey alder
- grey alien
- grey amber
- grey ammonia
- grey area
- greyback
- grey-backed fiscal
- greybeard
- grey belt
- grey-blue
- greyboard
- greybody
- grey-box testing
- grey-capped greenfinch
- grey cells
- grey club-rush
- grey-collar
- grey corkwood
- grey crested tit
- grey crow
- grey crowned crane
- grey eminence
- greyen
- greyer
- greyest
- greyey
- grey folk
- grey francolin
- greyfriar
- grey friar
- grey ghost
- grey gold
- grey goo
- grey-haired
- grey-hat
- grey hat
- greyhead
- grey-headed
- grey-headed bunting
- grey-headed chickadee
- grey-headed woodpecker
- grey hen
- grey heron
- grey-hooded attila
- grey-hooded bunting
- greyhound
- grey hydrogen
- greyish
- greyishly
- grey jay
- grey junglefowl
- greylag
- grey-legged tinamou
- greyline
- greylist
- grey literature
- greyly
- grey magic
- grey magick
- grey market
- grey marketeer
- grey matter
- grey mullet
- grey-necked bunting
- grey-necked wood rail
- greyness
- grey night
- grey noddy
- grey noise
- grey nomad
- grey nurse
- grey nurse shark
- grey out
- grey ox
- grey partridge
- grey platelet syndrome
- grey plover
- grey pound
- grey power
- grey rape
- grey red-backed vole
- grey reef shark
- grey rhea
- grey rocking
- grey rock method
- grey-scale
- greyscale
- grey scale
- greyschist
- grey seal
- greystone
- grey-tailed tattler
- grey teal
- grey ternlet
- grey-throated rail
- grey tinamou
- grey tit
- Grey Tribe
- grey wagtail
- grey warbler
- greyware
- grey water
- greywater
- greywether
- grey whale
- grey-winged trumpeter
- grey wolf
- grey zorro
- gunmetal-grey
- gunmetal grey
- lesser grey shrike
- military grey
- Patagonian grey fox
- Payne's grey
- pearl grey
- pinko-grey
- silver-grey
- slate grey
- South American grey fox
- the fox may grow grey but never good
- the grey mare is the better horse
- ungrey
- western grey kangaroo
- wolf-grey
Translations
Verb
grey (third-person singular simple present greys, present participle greying, simple past and past participle greyed)
- British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
- 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck[1]:
- Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.
Noun
grey (plural greys)
- British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
- 1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
- Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, / That costs thy life, my gallant grey.
- 1833, Sporting Magazine, volume 6, page 400:
- Pioneer seemed now to have the game in his own hands; but the Captain, by taking two desperate leaps, cut off a corner, by which he regained the ground he had lost by the fall, and was up with the grey the remainder of the chase.
Translations
See also
Colors/Colours in English (layout · text) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
red | orange | yellow | green | blue (incl. indigo; cyan, teal, turquoise) |
purple / violet | |
pink (including magenta) |
brown | white | grey/gray | black |
References
- ^ 2001, Charlotte Spinks, A New Apartheid? Urban Spatiality, (Fear of) Crime, and Segregation; in Cape Town, South Africa, Destin Development Studies Institute, ISSN 1470-2320
Anagrams
Icelandic
Etymology
From Old Norse grey, from Proto-Germanic *grawją, cognate with Faroese groyggj. Original meaning -meager dog (greyhound), whereas in English the semantic developed to simply a lean dog, this was transferred mostly from the dogs all together to mean a -poor little thing - a poor person. the semantic change to something poor has already taken place in the old language.
Pronunciation
Noun
grey n (genitive singular greys, nominative plural grey)
- (archaic) bitch (female dog)
- wretch, pitiful person
- Greyið mitt!
- You poor little thing!
- Greyið Jón
- Poor John
- indefinite accusative singular of grey
- indefinite nominative plural of grey
- indefinite accusative plural of grey
Declension
Middle English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old English grǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz.
Pronunciation
Adjective
grey (plural and weak singular greye)
- grey, dull, drab (in color)
- glinting, glistening
Descendants
References
- “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
Noun
grey
Descendants
References
- “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
- “grei, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
- “grei, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
See also
whit | grey, hor | blak |
red; cremesyn, gernet | citrine, aumbre; broun, tawne | yelow, dorry, gul; canevas |
grasgrene | grene | |
plunket; ewage | asure, livid | blewe, blo, pers |
violet; inde | rose, murrey; purpel, purpur | claret |
Portuguese
Noun
grey m (plural greys)
- Alternative form of gray (race of extraterrestrials)
Spanish
Etymology
Inherited from Old Spanish grey, from Latin gregem, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“to assemble, gather together”).
Pronunciation
Noun
grey f (plural greyes)
- (obsolete, poetic) flock, herd
- (religion) flock (people served by a pastor, priest, etc., also all believers in a church or religion)
- Synonyms: rebaño, feligresía, congregación, iglesia
- 1877, Benito Pérez Galdós, Gloria:
- toda la grey díscola y ladina de aquellas verdes montañas
- the whole rebellious and cunning flock from those green mountains
Derived terms
Related terms
See also
Further reading
- “grey”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
- Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1983–1991) “grey”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos, page 208
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *gʰreh₁-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪ
- Rhymes:English/eɪ/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- British English forms
- Commonwealth English
- English terms with quotations
- South African English
- English slang
- English verbs
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Greys
- Icelandic terms derived from Old Norse
- Icelandic terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Icelandic 1-syllable words
- Icelandic terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Icelandic/eiː
- Rhymes:Icelandic/eiː/1 syllable
- Icelandic lemmas
- Icelandic nouns
- Icelandic neuter nouns
- Icelandic countable nouns
- Icelandic terms with archaic senses
- Icelandic terms with usage examples
- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
- Middle English terms derived from Old English
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Middle English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Middle English/æi̯
- Rhymes:Middle English/æi̯/1 syllable
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English adjectives
- Middle English nouns
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese terms spelled with Y
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Spanish terms inherited from Old Spanish
- Spanish terms derived from Old Spanish
- Spanish terms inherited from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Latin
- Spanish terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Spanish 1-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ei
- Rhymes:Spanish/ei/1 syllable
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns
- Spanish terms with obsolete senses
- Spanish poetic terms
- es:Religion
- Spanish terms with quotations