grex

English

Etymology

Latin grex (“flock”).

Noun

grex (plural greges or grexes)

1. (biology) A multicellular aggregate of amoeba.
2. (horticulture) A kind of group used in horticultural nomenclature, applied to the progeny of an artificial cross from specified parents.

   Synonym: gx

Further reading

• Grex (horticulture) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“to assemble, gather together”). See also Lithuanian gurguole (“mass, crowd”) and gurgulys (“chaos, confusion”), Old Church Slavonic гроусти (grusti, “handful”), Sanskrit गण (gaṇá, “flock, troop, group”) and ग्राम (grā́ma, “troop, collection, multitude; village, tribe”), and Ancient Greek ἀγείρω (ageírō, “I gather, collect”), whence ἀγορά (agorá). See Proto-Germanic *kruppaz (“lump, round mass, body, crop”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ɡreks/, [ɡrɛks̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ɡreks/, [ɡrɛks]

Noun

grex m (genitive gregis); third declension

1. (zoology) A group of smaller animals: a flock (of birds, sheep, etc.), a pack (of dogs, wolves, etc.), a swarm (of insects), etc.
2. (figurative) A similar group of other things, particularly:
   1. A group of people: a crowd, a clique, a company, a band, a troop, etc.
   2. (sports) A team of charioteers.
   3. (theater) A troupe of actors.

Usage notes

Properly, a herd or drove of larger animals form a pecus n, a iumentum (when pulling carts), or a armenta (when pulling a plow), while smaller animals—especially domesticated pecudēs—form a grex. Its use for people is not necessarily pejorative in the way pecus is.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	grex	gregēs
Genitive	gregis	gregum
Dative	gregī	gregibus
Accusative	gregem	gregēs
Ablative	grege	gregibus
Vocative	grex	gregēs

Hyponyms

• pecus

Derived terms

• gregālis
• gregārius
• gregātim

Related terms

• gregō

Descendants

• Albanian: grigjë
• English: egregious, gregarious, congregation, grex
• French: grégaire
• Galician: grea, grei
• Italian: gregge
• Portuguese: grei, grege
• Spanish: grey

References

• “grex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “grex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• grex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • a theatrical company: familia, grex, caterva histrionum
    
  • the manager: dominus gregis
    
  • to feed a flock (of goats): pascere gregem
    
  • the herds are grazing: greges pascuntur (Verg. G. 3. 162)
    
• "Pecus; Jumentum; Armentum; Grex" in H.H. Arnold's translation of Ludwig von Döderlein's Hand-Book of Latin Synonymes (1841), pp. 158–9.