Etymologically
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greedy

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɡɹiːdi/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gredy, inherited from Old English grǣdig (“voracious, hungry, covetous”),[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-Germanic *grēdagaz,[3][6] an adjective formed on *grēduz (“hunger, greed”).[3][6][7] The noun survives in Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌿𐍃 (grēdus, “hunger”) and gráðr (“greed, hunger”), and in Old English only in a dative plural form meaning "eagerly".[7][8][5] The cognate adjectives are Old Saxon grādag, Old High German grātag, gráðugr, Dutch gretig and Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (grēdags, “hungry”).[7][9][5][2] Its further origin is uncertain: Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call the base unexplained,[8][10] while the OED, Klein and Skeat compare Sanskrit गृध् (gṛdh, “to be greedy”),[7][9][11] and Etymonline, Barnhart and Orel refer it to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to like, want”),[3][5][6] with Orel comparing Ancient Greek χαίρω (khaírō, “to rejoice”).[6] The noun greed is a back-formation from the adjective, recorded from 1609.[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English grǣdig meant both "ravenous, hungry for food" and "covetous, eager for gain";[7][3] Barnhart dates the covetous sense to about 725, in Beowulf,[5] and the OED's first quotations come from the Blickling Homilies and Solomon and Saturn.[7] In some early examples it means simply "hungry".[7]

Semantic evolution

Barnhart finds the Middle English gredi first in the sense "avaricious" (about 1175), and "gluttonous" a little later.[5] About 1300 the word widened to "eager, keen" in general, with an obsolete sense "zealous";[7] from about 1385, in Chaucer, it described actions and feelings marked by eager desire.[7] It was applied to the stomach and appetite from 1526,[7] and Elizabethan writers used it of prey that was greedily pursued (1590–1648).[7] Johnson (1755) gave "ravenous, voracious, hungry" as the first sense, quoting the psalm verse "as a lion that is greedy of his prey".[12] In 18th-century chemistry it described substances that absorb readily.[7] In northern and Midland dialect (Cumberland, Yorkshire, Leicestershire) greedy could mean "saving, careful with money" as well as "covetous", and the dialects formed compounds such as greedy-guts, a glutton.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – grǣdig, covetous (in Beowulf).[5]
  • Old English – ravenous; covetous.[7]
  • c. 1175 – gredi, avaricious.[5]
  • a1300 – eager, keen in general.[7]
  • c. 1385 – of feelings and actions (Chaucer).[7]
  • 1526 – of the stomach or appetite.[7]
  • 1609 – the back-formation greed.[5]
  • 1758 – (chemistry) absorbing readily.[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Wanting more food, money or possessions than one needs; avaricious or gluttonous: a greedy landlord who raises the rent every year.
  2. Very eager or keen for something: greedy for praise.

Word family

  • greedily
  • greediness
  • greed
  • overgreedy
  • ungreedy
  • yearn

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ 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)