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

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Various shades of grey

From Middle English grey, from Old English grēġ (Anglian). The spelling grey reflects the Anglian vowel development, whereas the variant gray stems from the West Saxon form grǣġ (through Middle English gray). Further derived 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”)).

grey (comparative greyer or more grey, superlative greyest or most grey)

  1. 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.
    • 1954 August, H. M. Madgwick, “The Blaenau Festiniog Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:
      This is itself a cheerless spot, particularly on a rainy day, when, overshadowed by the great massif of rock that towers in the background, and surrounded by the grey and cheerless quarries, it has a depressing character much in contrast with the green verdure encountered on the northern end of this interesting branch line.
  2. (South Africa, slang) Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).[1]

grey (third-person singular simple present greys, present participle greying, simple past and past participle greyed)

  1. 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.

grey (plural greys)

  1. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
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
  1. ^ 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

From Old Norse grey, from Proto-Germanic *grawją, cognate with Faroese groyggj.

grey n (genitive singular greys, nominative plural **grey)

  1. (archaic) bitch (female dog)
  2. wretch
  3. pitiful person, poor thing
    Greyið mitt!
    You poor little thing!

From Old English grēġ (Anglian), from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz. The West Saxon equivalent grǣġ yielded the Middle English variant gray.

grey (plural and weak singular greye)

  1. grey, dull, drab (in color)
  2. glinting, glistening

grey

  1. grey (colour)
  2. Fur of the grey squirrel
  3. grey clothes
  4. grey textiles
  5. An elderly man
  6. A badger

Colors in Middle English · coloures, hewes (layout · text)

whit grey, hor blak
red; cremesyn, gernet citrine, aumbre; broun, tawne yelow, dorry, gul; canevas
grasgrene grene
plunket; ewage asure, livid blew, blo, pers
violet; inde rose, murrey; purpel, purpur claret

grey m (plural greys)

  1. alternative form of gray (race of extraterrestrials)

Inherited from Old Spanish grey, from Latin gregem.

grey f (plural greyes)

  1. (obsolete, poetic) flock, herd
    Synonyms: rebaño, rehala
  2. (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