Etymologically
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grim

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grim, also grimme,[2] inherited from Old English grimm (“fierce, cruel, savage; severe”),[3][4][5][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz,[3][7][8][9] related to Old Saxon grim, Old Frisian grim, Old High German grim, German grimm, Dutch grim, Old Norse grimmr, Swedish grym (“fierce, furious”) and Danish grim (“ugly”).[4][3][10][5] Barnhart explains the double consonant as an intensive doubling.[5] The Germanic root Proto-Germanic *grem- is an ablaut variant of *gram-, seen in Old English gram (“angry”) and gremian (“to make angry”),[4][9][10] and Old English also had grimman, a strong verb, and grima (“goblin, spectre”), perhaps also a name or title of a god, which appears in place names.[3] Further back, most dictionaries derive it from Proto-Indo-European *ghrem-, perhaps imitating a rumbling sound,[5][3][8][9][10] which also gave Ancient Greek χρεμίζειν (khremízein, “to neigh”), Old Prussian grumins (“thunder”) and words for thunder in the Slavic languages.[10][3][8][5] The same Germanic root was borrowed as Spanish grima (“fright”), the source of grimace, and also gave grumble.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of persons or animals, fierce, cruel or savage, and of pain or illness, cruel or terribly severe: Old English, in Beowulf (about 725 according to Barnhart), the Blickling Homilies, the Battle of Maldon and the Old English Bede.[5][4] Merriam-Webster dates its first known use to before the 12th century.[11]

Semantic evolution

The word has weakened over the centuries from its Old English sense of fierce or cruel.[12][3] The sense "dreary, gloomy" is first recorded about 1175,[5][3] and Ormin used a two-syllable form grimme.[4][2] Early Middle English had the phrase to wend the grim tooth, to resort to harsh measures.[3][4] From 1340 it described a stern or forbidding appearance, as in Rolle's Pricke of Conscience,[4][9] and in Shakespeare it was applied to Death personified (“Grim death, how foul and loathsome is thine image”, in The Taming of the Shrew);[4][13][1] Weekley saw the classic use in Paradise Lost.[13] Milton applied it to laughter in 1641, and in later use grim humour dealt with ghastly or painful subjects.[4][9] Johnson (1755) defined it as having a terrifying look, horrible or hideous.[14] Scott extended it to scenes and situations in 1820,[4] and the sense "of sinister import" dates from 1873.[4] To hang on like grim death dates from the early 19th century,[12] and the Grim Reaper for death from 1847.[3][12] A noun grim, a spectre or bogey, is recorded from the 1620s,[3] and in American teenage slang of 1981 grim meant bossy or disapproving.[15] In dialect grim meant grimy or dark in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and other counties, and in Yorkshire the noun was a death's head or a ghost.[16]

Timeline

  • Old English – fierce, cruel, savage; of pain, cruelly severe.[4][5]
  • c. 1175 – dreary, gloomy.[5][3]
  • ?c. 1225 – to wend the grim tooth, to resort to harsh measures.[4][3]
  • 1340 – stern or forbidding in appearance.[4]
  • before 1616 – of Death personified, in Shakespeare.[4]
  • 1620s – noun, a spectre or bogey.[3]
  • 1641 – of laughter or humour, stern, unrelenting, in Milton.[4]
  • 1820 – of scenes and situations, harsh, uninviting.[4]
  • 1847 – the Grim Reaper.[3]
  • 1873 – of sinister import.[4]
  • 1981 – American teenage slang, bossy.[15]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Stern and resolute: They set about the repairs with grim resolve.
  2. Harsh or forbidding in manner or appearance: a grim face.
  3. Cruel, severe or ghastly: a grim discovery.
  4. Harshly ironic or sinister; of humour, dealing with ghastly or painful subjects.
  5. (informal) Unpleasant or depressing: The weather was pretty grim all week.
  6. (archaic or poetic) Fierce and savage.
  7. hold on like grim death: to hold on very firmly or resolutely.

Verb

  1. (rare) To make grim or give a grim look to.

Word family

  • grimly
  • grimness
  • Grim Reaper
  • grimace
  • grumble
  • grame
  • pogrom

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ 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)