green - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Various shades of green

A forest with green trees

color

color

green

Several of the most common color words in English

Proto-West Germanic *grōnī

English green

From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). More at grow. Doublet of Gruen.

See also North Frisian green, West Frisian grien, Dutch groen, Low German grön, green, greun, German grün, Danish and Norwegian Nynorsk grøn, Swedish grön, Norwegian Bokmål grønn, Faroese grønur, Icelandic grænn.

The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is a semantic loan from Spanish verde. In other varieties of English, blue is the color instead associated with obscenity or pornography.

green (countable and uncountable, plural greens)

  1. The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.
    Synonyms: emerald, lime; see also Thesaurus:green
    green:
    bright green :
    • 2015, Alison Matthews David, Fashion Victims: The Damages of Dress Past and Present, →ISBN, page 81:
      In a period of increasing industrialization and the palette of grey, brown, and black that came to dominate the modern city, greens provided a refreshing contrast, seemingly bringing the outdoors in.
    • 2025 March 29, Kristen Rogers, “Over half of US states are trying to eliminate food dyes. Here’s what you can do now”, in CNN‎[2]:
      Red No. 3, red No. 40, blue No. 2 and green No. 3 all have been linked with cancer or tumors in animals. Other sources say red No. 40 and yellow No. 5 and No. 6 contain or may be contaminated with known carcinogens.
  2. (politics, sometimes capitalized) A member of a green party; an environmentalist.
    Synonyms: environmentalist, (Australian) greenie, tree hugger, treehugger
    Hyponyms: blue green, red green
    • 2013, Joe Smith, What Do Greens Believe?, →ISBN, page 62:
      How have greens sought to map an ecologically and socially sustainable future for society?
  3. (golf) A putting green, the part of a golf course near the hole.
    • 1964 June 16, Arnold Palmer, quotee, “All Eyes On Lema At U.S. Open This Week”, in The Indianapolis Star, volume 62, number 11, Indianapolis, Ind., page 22:
      I gave him my putter earlier this year in Oklahoma City. He was having trouble on the greens and I said, ‘Here, try this.’ He did, and he’s been going great guns ever since.
    • 2010, Dan Jenkins, Fairways and Greens, →ISBN, page 233:
      There are eighteen holes but I dare any visitor to find more than, say, twelve fairways and seven or eight greens.
  4. (bowls) The surface upon which bowls is played.
    Synonym: bowling green
  5. (snooker) One of the color balls used in snooker, with a value of 3 points.
  6. (UK) A public patch of land in the middle of a settlement.
  7. A grassy plain; a piece of ground covered with verdant herbage.
  8. (chiefly in the plural) Fresh leaves or branches of trees or other plants; wreaths.
  9. Any substance or pigment of a green color.
  10. A green light used as a signal.
  1. (uncountable, slang) Marijuana.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana
  1. (US, slang, uncountable) Money.
  2. (particle physics) One of the three color charges for quarks.
  3. (theater, informal) Ellipsis of green room.

Nouns

Proper nouns

green (comparative greener, superlative greenest)

  1. Of a green hue.
    Synonyms: verdant, vert; see also Thesaurus:greenish
    Antonyms: nongreen, ungreen
    He is wearing a green shirt.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      The day was cool and snappy for August, and the Rise all green with a lavish nature. Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges over the cold trout-streams, the boards giving back the clatter of our horses' feet: […] .
  2. (figurative, of people) Sickly, unwell.
    Sally looks pretty green—is she going to be sick?
  3. Unripe, said of certain fruits that change color when they ripen.
    Antonym: ripe
  4. (figurative) Inexperienced.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:inexperienced
    John's kind of green, so take it easy on him this first week.
    • 2008, Richard R. Rust, Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada, page 91:
      He acted like a green racehorse, plunging over his jumps, tearing to the front of the field of riders.
  5. (politics, sometimes capitalized) Islamist.
    • 1999, Roxanne L. Euben, Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism‎[4], page 6:
      In its most extreme formulation, this vision has devolved into a caricature of Islam as the "Green Peril" (green is the colour of Islam) advancing across the world stage, an image that echoes both the "Red Menace" of Cold War discourse and anti-Asian polemics about the "Yellow Peril".
    • 2006, Benjamin Soares, Muslim-Christian encounters in Africa‎[5], page 11:
      Some politicians tried to encourage this replacement of the red with a green menace.
    • 2009, Douglas Little, American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945‎[6], page 317:
      While Bill Clinton struggled during the 1990s to bring order to a chaotic world increasingly wracked by ethnic and religious conflict, critics detected signs that a new "green" threat - radical Islam - was supplanting the earlier "red threat" - international communism - that had kept every president from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan awake at night.
  6. (figurative) Full of life and vigour; fresh and vigorous; new; recent; young.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:new
    a green manhood
    a green wound
    • 1952, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, page 12:
      "How old was I when you first took me in a boat?"
      "Five and you were nearly a man when I brought the fish in too green and he nearly tore the boat to pieces. Can you remember?"
  7. (figurative, of people) Naive or unaware of obvious facts.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:gullible
  8. (figurative, of people) Overcome with envy.
    Synonym: envious
    He was green with envy.
  9. (figurative) Environmentally friendly.
    Synonyms: eco-friendly; see also Thesaurus:environmentally friendly
    green energy
    • 2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly‎[7], volume 188, number 22, page 30:
      As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field.
    • 2019 February 13, Emily Dixon, “China and India are making the planet greener, NASA says”, in CNN‎[8]:
      The Earth is facing a climate crisis, but it’s also getting greener and leafier. According to new research, the rise is largely courtesy of China and India.
    • 2021 May 18, Jack Ewing, Lauren Hirsch, “The Big Money Is Going Vegan”, in The New York Times‎[9], →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 May 2021:
      Oatly said it hoped Blackstone’s investment would inspire other private equity firms “to steer their collective worth of $4 trillion into green investments.”
  10. (politics, sometimes capitalized) Of a green party, environmentalism-oriented.
  11. (cricket) Describing a pitch which, even if there is no visible grass, still contains a significant amount of moisture.
  12. (dated) Of bacon or similar smallgoods: unprocessed, raw, unsmoked; not smoked or spiced.[1]
    Synonyms: raw, unprocessed, unsmoked
    Antonyms: processed, smoked, spiced
  13. (dated) Not fully roasted; half raw.
  1. (film, television, historical) Of film: freshly processed by the laboratory and not yet fully physically hardened.
  1. Of freshly cut wood or lumber that has not been dried: containing moisture and therefore relatively more flexible or springy.
    That timber is still too green to be used.
  1. (wine) High or too high in acidity.
    Synonym: tart
    Antonyms: cloy, sweet
  2. (Philippines, informal) Having a sexual connotation; indecent; lewd; risqué; obscene; profane.
  3. (particle physics) Having a color charge of green.
    Antonym: antigreen
  4. Being or relating to the green currencies of the European Union.
    the green pound
    the green lira
  5. (academia) Subject to or involving a model of open access in which a published article is only available to read for free after an embargo period.
    Coordinate term: gold
  1. (metallurgy) Of or pertaining to a part formed from compacted metal powder which has not yet undergone sintering to improve its strength.
  1. Having a status (as correct, ready, or safe) denoted or coded by the color green.

English terms starting with “green”

  1. ^ “unsmoked bacon used to be called green bacon, though the term is losing currency” Delia Online: Bacon, including gammon

From Middle English grenen, from Old English grēnian (“to become green, flourish”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōnijan, from Proto-Germanic *grōnijōną, *grōnijaną (“to become green”), from the adjective (see above).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian gräinje, German Low German grönen, German grünen, Swedish gröna, Icelandic gróna.

green (third-person singular simple present greens, present participle greening, simple past and past participle greened)

  1. (transitive) To make or turn (something) green or greener.
  2. To become or grow green in color.
    • 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Ancient Sage”, in Tiresias and Other Poems, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 63:
      O rosetree planted in my grief, / And growing, on her tomb, / Her dust is greening in your leaf, / Her blood is in your bloom.
  3. (transitive) To add greenspaces to (a town, etc.).
    • 2000, AIA Guide to New York City, page 58:
      The newer 39-story, 1.5-million-square-foot tower occupies much of the original Shearson Garden, a larger parklet that briefly greened the construction site to be, and is remembered fondly by nearby Tribecans.
  4. (intransitive) To become environmentally aware.
  5. (transitive) To make (something) environmentally friendly.
    • 2023 June 28, Conrad Landin, “Network News: Scottish 4.8% rail fares rise labelled 'bad news'”, in RAIL, number 986, page 18:
      "The SNP like to talk the talk about net zero targets, but they can't walk the walk. We need a fares freeze for everyone if we want to get serious about greening the economy and a public railway run in the public interest."

From the colors used on traffic lights; green being the one that allows vehicles to move on.

green

  1. (BDSM, procedure word) Used to indicate that the speaker wishes to commence (or to continue a previously stopped) sexual activity.
    Coordinate terms: yellow, red
Colo(u)rs in English (layout · text)
red orange yellow green blue (incl. indigo) purple / violet
magenta, pink brown cyan, teal, turquoise white gray/grey black

Derived from English green.

green m inan

  1. (slang, golf) green (a putting green; the part of a golf course near the hole)

Although the official term for the green is jamkoviště, it is rarely used in practice. Instead, unofficial Czech versions of the English word green, variously spelled green, grýn, and grín, are used in practice.[1]

  1. ^ “Golf Club Hradec Králové, Jan. 6, 2010”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], 6 January 2010 (last accessed), archived from the original on 16 May 2010

From English green.

green c (definite singular greenen, indefinite plural greens, definite plural greenene)

  1. (golf) a green, putting green (the closely mown area surrounding each hole on a golf course)

Borrowed from North Germanic, from Old Norse grǫn.

green m (plural grenen, no diminutive)

  1. (obsolete) Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris
    Synonym: grove den

Borrowed from English green.

green m (plural greens, no diminutive)

  1. (golf) green, putting green

green m (plural greens)

  1. (golf) green

From Middle Low German grōne, from Old Saxon grōni.

green (Low Prussian)

  1. green

Borrowed from Old French greer; equivalent to gre +‎ -en (infinitival suffix).

green (Late Middle English)

  1. To come to an understanding or agreement.
  2. (rare) To make a compact of reconciliation.

From Old Frisian grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz.

green

  1. (Föhr-Amrum, Sylt) green

Inflection of green (Föhr-Amrum dialect)

| | masculine | feminine /neuter | plural | | | ----------------------- | ---------------- | ------- | ------- | | indefinite | definite | | | | positive | | | | | predicative / adverbial | green | | | | attributive | greenen | green | green | | independent | greenen | | | | partitive | greens | — | | | comparative | | | | | predicative / adverbial | greener | | | | attributive | greeneren | greener | greener | | independent | greeneren | | | | partitive | greeners | — | | | superlative | | | | | predicative / adverbial | am greensten | | | | attributive | — | greenst | greenst | | independent | greensten | | |

Inflection of green (Sylt dialect)

| | singular | plural | | | | ----------------------- | ------------ | ------- | --------- | | indefinite | definite | | | | positive | | | | | predicative / adverbial | green | | | | attributive | | | | | independent | greenen | green | greenen | | partitive | greens | — | | | comparative | | | | | predicative / adverbial | greener | | | | attributive | | | | | independent | greeneren | greener | greeneren | | partitive | greeners | — | | | superlative | | | | | predicative / adverbial | am greensten | | | | attributive | greenst | | | | independent | — | greenst | greensten |

green m (definite singular greenen, indefinite plural greener, definite plural greenene)

  1. (golf) a green, putting green (the closely mown area surrounding each hole on a golf course)

green m (definite singular greenen, indefinite plural greenar, definite plural greenane)

  1. (golf) a green or putting green (the closely mown area surrounding each hole on a golf course)

Unadapted borrowing from English green.

green n (plural greenuri)

  1. putting green

Unadapted borrowing from English green.

green m (plural greens or greenes)

  1. (golf) green

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

green

Borrowed from English green. Doublet of grön.

green c

  1. (golf) a green, putting green (the closely mown area around a hole on a golf course)

From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī.

green

  1. green
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 10, page 88:
      Oore hart cam' t' oore mouth, an zo w' all ee green;
      Our hearts came to our mouth, and so with all in the green;

Colors in Yola · [Term?] (layout · text)

whit, baun gry bhlock, ghou
reed yulloureed yullou, buee
*leem green green *meente
blúegreen *asure blue
purple rowse