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grey

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Grey

English

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Various shades of grey.

Alternative forms

  • gray (often used in the US)

Etymology

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

Adjective

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

  1. British 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.
    • 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]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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

  1. British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
    • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck‎:
      Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.

Noun

grey (plural greys)

  1. British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

Translations

gray — see gray

See also

Colors/Colours in English (layout · text)
             red          orange              yellow              green              blue (incl.      indigo;
             cyan, teal, turquoise)		              purple / violet
         pink (including
         magenta)		          brown      white              gray/grey      black

References

  1. [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

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