grey
English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]
- gray (often used in the US)
Etymology[edit]
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[edit]
Adjective[edit]
grey (comparative greyer or more grey, superlative greyest or most grey)
- UK 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[edit]
- 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 amber
- grey area
- greyback
- grey-backed fiscal
- greybeard
- grey-blue
- greyboard
- greybody
- grey-box testing
- grey cells
- grey-collar
- grey corkwood
- grey crested tit
- grey crow
- grey crowned crane
- grey eminence
- greyen
- greyer
- greyest
- 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 bunting
- greyhound
- 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 noise
- grey nomad
- grey nurse
- grey nurse shark
- grey out
- 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
- greyscale
- greyschist
- grey seal
- greystone
- grey-tailed tattler
- grey teal
- grey-throated rail
- grey tinamou
- grey tit
- grey wagtail
- greyware
- greywater
- greywether
- grey whale
- grey-winged trumpeter
- grey wolf
- grey zorro
- gunmetal-grey
- gunmetal grey
- lesser grey shrike
- military grey
- Patagonian grey fox
- 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[edit]
Verb[edit]
grey (third-person singular simple present greys, present participle greying, simple past and past participle greyed)
- UK 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[edit]
grey (plural greys)
- UK and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
- 1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; a Poem, 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[edit]
See also[edit]
white | gray, grey | black |
red; crimson | orange; brown | yellow; cream |
lime, lime green | green | mint |
cyan; teal | azure, sky blue | blue |
violet; indigo | magenta; purple | pink |
References[edit]
- ^ 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[edit]
Icelandic[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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 toghether to mean a -poor little thing - a poor person. the semantic change to something poor has already taken place in the old language.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
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[edit]
Middle English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old English grǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz.
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
grey (plural and weak singular greye)
- grey, dull, drab (in color)
- glinting, glistening
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
Noun[edit]
grey
Descendants[edit]
References[edit]
- “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[edit]
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[edit]
Noun[edit]
grey m (plural greys)
- Alternative form of gray (race of extraterrestrials)
Spanish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Inherited from Old Spanish grey, from Latin gregem, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“to assemble, gather together”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
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[edit]
Related terms[edit]
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “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
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- Rhymes:English/eɪ
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- English lemmas
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- British English
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- South African English
- English slang
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- en:Colors
- en:Greys
- Icelandic terms derived from Old Norse
- Icelandic terms derived from Proto-Germanic
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- Rhymes:Icelandic/eiː
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- Icelandic lemmas
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- Middle English terms inherited from Old English
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- Middle English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- Middle English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
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- Rhymes:Middle English/æi̯
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- enm:Colors
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- Portuguese terms spelled with Y
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Spanish terms inherited from Old Spanish
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- Spanish terms derived from Latin
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- 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