grue

See also: Grue

English

WOTD – 14 May 2009

Pronunciation

• enPR: gro͞o, IPA^(key): /ɡɹuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophone: grew

Etymology 1

From Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Low German gruwen or Middle Dutch gruwen (compare Dutch gruwen), both from Proto-Germanic *grūwijaną, perhaps ultimately an imitative derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”), or instead from *gʰer- (“to rub, stroke, grind”).

Verb

grue (third-person singular simple present grues, present participle gruing, simple past and past participle grued)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To be frightened; to shudder with fear.
   • 1822, Sir Walter Scott, The Pirate, volume I, Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, pages 111–112:

     “It is seenteen hundred linen,” said the pedlar, giving a tweak to one of the shirts, in that knowing manner with which matrons and judges ascertain the texture of the loom ; “it’s seenteen hundred linen, and as strong as an it were dowlas. Nevertheless, mother, your bidding is to be done ; and I would have done Mr. Mordaunt’s bidding too,” he added, relaxing from his note of defiance, into the deferential whining tone with which he cajoled his customers, “if he hadna made use of profane oaths which made my very flesh grue, and caused me, in some sort, to forget myself.”

Translations

shudder — see shudder

Noun

grue (plural grues)

1. (Scotland) A shiver, a shudder.
   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     Upon all others the sight of Alison, were it but for a moment, cast a cold grue, not to be remembered without terror.

   • 1964, Geoffrey Jenkins, (title):

     A Grue of Ice

   • 1992, Alasdair Gray, Poor Things, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 25:

     A cold grue went through me—I was unable to touch such a hand.

Translations

shudder — see shudder

Etymology 2

Back-formation from gruesome.

Noun

grue (uncountable)

1. Any byproduct of a gruesome event, such as gore, viscera, entrails, blood and guts.

   The butcher was covered in the accumulated grue of a hard day's work

   There was grue everywhere after the accident

   • 1958, Samuel Youd, writing as John Christopher, The Caves of Night:

     'I've told you - it wasn't much. He tried to kiss me.' She smiled slightly. 'Just after he had shown me the family skeletons.' / 'What a lovely bit of grue!'

   • 1996, Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body [2]

     Carrie is Cinderella in the body language of menstrual blood and raging hormones. King’s adolescent joy in grimaces and groans, the Mad magazine humor, and the staple of “grue” hardly need mentioning.

   • 2002, Carole Nelson Douglas, Chapel Noir [3]

     “[...] She is quite agreeable to gruesome ghost stories, but appalled by the lust for life.” / “I admit that I am surprised by how well she handles sheer grue, better than I.”

   • 2004, Talbot Mundy, Guns of the Gods [4]

     “This is the grue,” said Dick, holding his lantern high. / Its light fell on a circle of skeletons, all perfect, each with its head toward a brass bowl in the center.

Etymology 3

Probably from gruesome; first used in Jack Vance's Dying Earth universe in the 1940s, but popularized by the text-based computer game Zork in 1980.

Noun

grue (plural grues)

1. A fictional man-eating predator that dwells in the dark.
   • 1981, Byte, volume 6:

     I managed to get into the house through the front once, but I was plunged into darkness and eaten by a monster called a grue.

   • 2009, Jas, “Hazadous ^[sic] Australian animals the GRUE.... your guide”, in rec.travel.australia+nz (Usenet):

     To find a grue, turn off the light at night, or go for a walk in a dark place (but carry a flashlight with you).

   • 2004, M.D. Dollahite, “How would you imagine a grue?”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):

     Incidentally, the best official text description I know of is in Sorcerer, when you actually become a grue and visit a grue colony. IIRC, even that description is vague, but does cannonize^[sic] that they are large four-legged reptiles.

Etymology 4

Blend of green +‎ blue. The philosophy sense was coined by American philosopher Nelson Goodman in 1955 to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science. The linguistic sense was coined by American linguist Paul Kay in 1975 as a translation from languages such as Welsh that have a basic cover term that covers both the hues called "green" and "blue" in English.

Adjective

grue (not comparable)

1. (philosophy) Of an object, green when first observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time.
   • 1965, Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction and Forecast:

     The grue property is defined as: x is grue if and only if x is green and is observed before the year 2000, or x is blue and is not observed before the year 2000.

   • 2007, Michael Clark, Paradoxes from A to Z:

     The unexamined emeralds cannot be both green and grue, since if they are grue and unexamined they are blue.

3. (linguistics) A single color inclusive of both green and blue as different shades, used in translations from languages such as old Welsh and Chinese that lacked a distinction between green and blue.

Coordinate terms

• (philosophy): bleen

Translations

philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue

• Dutch: bloen
• German: blün (de)
• Greek: πρασινογάλαζος (el) m (prasinogálazos)
• Portuguese: verzul, verul
• White Hmong: xiav

linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors

• Chambeali: 𑚝𑚯𑚥𑚭 (nīlā)
• Chinali: 𑚝𑚯𑚥𑚭 (nīlā)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 青 (zh)

• Classical Tibetan: སྔོན་པོ (sngon po)
• Dutch: bloen
• Egyptian: (wꜣḏ)
• German: blün (de)
• Greek: πρασινογάλαζος (el) m (prasinogálazos), γαλαζοπράσινος (el) m (galazoprásinos)
• Guaraní: hovy
• Japanese: 青い (ja) (aoi)
• Kaingang: tánh
• Korean: 푸르다 (ko) (pureuda)
• Ladakhi: སྔོན་པོ (sngon po)
• Lakota: tȟó
• Mopan Maya: yaʼax
• Northern Ndebele: -luhlaza
• Old Tupi: obý
• Portuguese: verzul, verul
• Russian: зи́ний m (zínij) (цвет)
• Thai: เขียว (th) (kǐao)
• Tswana: tala
• Vietnamese: xanh (vi)
• Welsh: glas (cy)
• White Hmong: xiav
• Xhosa: -luhlaza
• Ye'kwana: seene
• Zulu: -luhlaza

See also

• aquamarine
• bleen
• blue-green
• cyan
• turquoise

Etymology 5

Noun

grue (uncountable)

1. (slang) Nutraloaf, a bland mixture of foods served in prisons.

Anagrams

• Guer., Ruge, geru, regu, urge

French

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *grua, from Latin gruem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁy/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

grue f (plural grues)

1. crane (bird)
   • (Can we date this quote?), Phaedrus, translated by Levasseur and J. Chenu, Fables, sourced from [5]:

     La Grue se laisse enfin persuader par ses serments

     At length, on his taking an oath, a Crane was prevailed on

2. crane (machine)
3. (colloquial) prostitute, hooker

Derived terms

• faire le pied de grue
• grue de Sibérie
• gruter
• grutier

Descendants

• → Portuguese: grua

Further reading

• “grue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• urge, urgé

Latin

Noun

grue

1. ablative singular of grūs

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German [Term?], related to gruve (“mine”) and grav (“grave”).

Noun

grue f or m (definite singular grua or gruen, indefinite plural gruer, definite plural gruene)

1. fireplace

Synonyms

• ildsted

Etymology 2

From Low German gruwen.

Verb

grue (present tense gruer, simple past grua or gruet or grudde, past participle grua or gruet or grudd)

1. To be queasy or nervous in anticipation of something.

   Han gruet for morgendagen.

   He was queasy about the following day.

   Han grudde seg til tannlegen.

   He was queasy about [the coming visit to] the dentist.

Usage notes

Can be used electively with the reflexive pronoun seg.

References

• “grue” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Middle Low German [Term?], related to gruve (“mine”) and grav (“grave”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²ɡrʉːə/

Noun

grue f (definite singular grua, indefinite plural gruer, definite plural gruene)

1. an open brick fireplace, a hearth

References

• “grue” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Yola

Alternative forms

• griue, greve

Etymology

In North English, it means riches.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɾuː/, /ɡɾiːv/

Noun

grue

1. wealth, greed

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 43