Greek

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English Greke,^[2] inherited from Old English Grēcas (“the Greeks”), earlier Crēcas,^[3][4][5][6] borrowed from Latin Graecus, plural Graecī,^[4][3][7][2] from Ancient Greek Γραικός (Graikós), plural Γραικοί (Graikoí).^[6][4][7] The Romans applied the Latin name to the people who called themselves Ἕλληνες (Héllēnes).^[4][3] The borrowing into Germanic was early: Old High German Chrēch and Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌴𐌺𐍃 (Krēks) have the same k as the Old English form, from Proto-Germanic *Krēkaz,^[3][4][5] which the OED explains by the Germanic initial g still being a fricative at the time, so that k was the nearest sound to the Latin g.^[4][7] The word was later refashioned after Latin in all the Germanic languages, as in German Grieche, Middle Dutch Grieke and Old Norse Grikkir.^[4][3] The sense "the Greek language" and the adjective come from this noun, the OED says, the adjective under the influence of Graecus and French grec.^[4] Aristotle, in the “Meteorologica”, gives this plural as a prehistoric name of the Hellenes in Epirus, and the OED takes it as apparently an adjective from Graius, a poetic Latin word for Greek.^[4][7][5] Further origin is debated: Klein and Etymonline, the latter citing Busolt, connect it with the town Ancient Greek Γραῖα (Graia) in Boeotia, whose colonists at Cumae gave the Latins their name for all Greeks, so that the Greeks reborrowed it;^[6][7] the OED cites Busolt for colonists from Euboea;^[4] and the American Heritage Dictionary calls it the name of a Boeotian tribe that settled in Italy.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A native or inhabitant of Greece, in the plural: in the Old English translation of Orosius,^[4] which Bosworth–Toller also cites for Of Grécum, from the Greeks.^[9] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 900.^[10] Until the 16th century it was found mostly in the plural.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective appears only in the 14th century, after older Gregeis, recorded about 1200, from Old French Gregois.^[7] It did not displace Greekish, Old English Grecisc, in general use until the 17th century.^[4][7] Greek for the language dates from the late 14th century.^[7][4] Green's Dictionary of Slang puts its negative senses down to the foreignness of Greek, as a language or a person:^[11] a cunning person or card cheat from 1528,^[4][11] which Weekley traced to French,^[12] and "merry Greek", a roisterer, from 1536.^[4] From 1573 it meant unintelligible speech,^[4] a use Etymonline dates to about 1600;^[7] Weekley quotes Shakespeare's "it was Greek to me" from Julius Caesar.^[12] In slang from 1823 a Greek was an Irishman.^[4][13] Greek fire, the incendiary substance of the Byzantines, known in the Middle Ages as Greeks, is recorded from about 1400, and earlier, about 1200, as Grickisce fure.^[7] The religious sense, a member of the Greek Church, goes back to Wyclif about 1380, and the adjective followed in 1564.^[4] The proverb "when Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war" is, according to the OED, a perversion of a line by Nathaniel Lee of 1677.^[4] In the United States, a Greek has been a member of a Greek-letter fraternity since the 1880s: the OED dates the noun to 1888 and the adjective to 1881, and Etymonline dates the noun to 1884.^[4][7] In computing, to greek is to reproduce text with random or arbitrary characters.^[5]

Timeline

• before 900 – noun, an inhabitant of Greece.^[10][4]
• c. 1200 – adjective Gregeis, from Old French.^[7]
• c. 1380 – a member of the Greek Church.^[4]
• c. 1384 – a Hellenized Jew (obsolete by 1685).^[4]
• late 14th century – adjective, of Greece or its people; noun, the Greek language.^[7] The OED's first records are from about 1400 and before 1450.^[4]
• 1528 – a cunning person, a cheat, especially at cards.^[4][11]
• 1536 – merry Greek, a roisterer.^[4]
• 1564 – adjective, of the Eastern Church.^[4]
• 1573 – unintelligible speech, gibberish.^[4]
• 1615 – verb, to Greek it, to follow the Greeks' practice (obsolete by 1799).^[4]
• 1817 – Greeking, cheating at cards.^[4][11]
• 1823 – slang, an Irishman.^[4]
• 1881 – adjective, of American college fraternities and sororities; the noun follows in 1888.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The language of Greece, the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European family, in its ancient and modern forms.^[14][2][4]
2. A native or inhabitant of Greece, or a person of Greek descent.^[14][2][4]
3. A member of the Greek Orthodox Church.^[14][4]
4. Anything incomprehensible, especially in it's (all) Greek to me.^[14][4]
5. In the United States, a member of a college fraternity or sorority.^[4][7]
6. Slang: a cheat, especially at cards.^[4][11]

Adjective

1. Of Greece, its people or its language: a Greek island.^[14][2][4]
2. Of the Eastern Orthodox Church, or of an Eastern church using the Byzantine rite in Greek.^[2][4]
3. Of architecture or art, resembling that of classical Greece.^[2][4]
4. In the United States, of college fraternities and sororities.^[4][7]

Word family

• Greekdom
• Greekish
• Graeco-
• Greekless
• Greek calends
• Greek Catholic
• Greek fire
• Greek gift

Related words

• Grecian
• Hellene
• grego
• gringo
• fenugreek
• galligaskins

Usage notes

Scots had two further words spelled greek: greek or greik, daybreak, which Wright derives from Old Norse grȳja (“to dawn”), and greek, the grain of a stone.^[13]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins