Etymologically
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grin

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English grennen, also grinnen,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English grennian (“to show the teeth, snarl”),[5][6][7][8] inherited from Proto-Germanic *granjōną.[9][7] It is cognate with Old High German grennan (“to mutter”), Middle High German grennen (“to grin”) and Old Norse grenja (“to howl”),[7][10][8][2] and a related root gives granōn (“to grunt”).[7][8] It is probably related to groan.[2][11][6][8] The OED suggests a link with a Germanic word for moustache,[7] and Etymonline and Ayto refer the group to Proto-Indo-European *gʰrey- (“to be open”).[5][12] The vowel of grin is a phonetic development, first in the north, of the older vowel e, but the OED and Barnhart note a probable influence from a similar Germanic group: Old High German grīnan (“to distort the face, grin”), German greinen, German grinsen and Dutch grijnzen.[7][6] The northern girn is a form of grin with the sounds reversed.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To draw back the lips and show the teeth in pain or anger, or to snarl: Old English, first in Cynewulf's Juliana in the OED,[7] before 1000 in Barnhart.[6]

Semantic evolution

Old English grennian meant baring the teeth in pain or anger.[11][12] From the late 15th century it was used of a smile:[5][13][7] at first a forced or unnatural one, then a silly one, and finally the broad, cheerful smile of today, though the old sense lasted at least two more centuries.[13] The older meaning survives in grinning skull[12] and in grin and bear it (early 19th century), earlier grin and abide (late 18th century).[13][7] Milton used it with a cognate object in 1667, and the transitive "to express by grinning" is recorded from 1681.[7] The noun followed in 1656, in Cowley's Davideis;[7][6] Etymonline gives the 1630s.[5] Johnson (1755) still defined the noun as closing the teeth and showing them.[14] In 19th-century American slang a grin was a skeleton,[15] and since the 1960s for grins has meant "for fun".[15] A painter's grin is an undercoat showing through, recorded from 1854.[7]

Timeline

  • before 1000 – Old English grennian, to bare the teeth, snarl.[6]
  • before 1200 – Middle English grennen.[6]
  • before 1500 – to smile broadly, at first a forced smile.[7][6]
  • 1656 – noun, an act of grinning.[7]
  • 1667 – with a cognate object (Milton).[7]
  • 1681 – to express by grinning.[7]
  • 1785 – grin and abide, grin and bear it.[7]
  • 1854 – of a paint coat, to show through.[7]
  • 1859 – US slang, a skeleton.[15]
  • 1966 – for grins, for fun.[15]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To smile broadly, showing the teeth: The winner grinned at the cameras.[16][2][17]
  2. To show a feeling by grinning: He grinned his thanks.[16][7]
  3. To draw back the lips and show the teeth, as in a snarl or grimace.[16][2][7]
  4. grin and bear it: to put up with hardship without complaining.[16][7]

Noun

  1. A broad smile that shows the teeth: a cheeky grin.[16][2][7]
  2. A grimace that bares the teeth: a grin of pain.[2][7]

Word family

  • grinner
  • grinningly
  • outgrin
  • groan
  • girn
  • gurn

Usage notes

Grin in the sense "snare, noose" has a separate source: Old English grin, of unknown origin, now obsolete except in dialect or archaic use.[7][10] Merriam-Webster labels it chiefly Scottish,[2] and Wright records it, with the forms girn and gurn, in Scotland, Ireland and many English counties.[18]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  10. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  13. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  18. ^ 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)