grey

Forms

grey f (plural greyes)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote grei, with the plurals greyes and greys.^[2][3] García de Diego records an old form gree in Castilian and Galician.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish grey, inherited from Latin grex (“flock, herd”).^[1][5][6] Wiktionary starts from the accusative gregem.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese grei, Galician grea, Italian gregge and Sardinian arrei (“herd of large cattle”).^[7][4] In Portuguese the older forms were Old Galician-Portuguese gree in the 13th century and grey in the 14th.^[8]

De Vaan reconstructs *gʷreg- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷreg- (“group, herd”), and compares Ancient Greek γάργαρα (gárgara, “heaps, crowds”) and Lithuanian gurguolė (“heap”), which may show a reduplicated variant of the root.^[9] Wiktionary calls the etymology uncertain: Beekes takes the Greek and Lithuanian words as independent sound-symbolic formations, and Matasović reconstructs *greg- from a root meaning “gather”.^[1] Latin compounds built on the noun gave the learned Spanish words egregio, agregar and segregar.^[9][6][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where the devils are sent into a herd of swine: estos diablos mandolos entrar una grey de puercos “he ordered these devils to go into a herd of pigs”.^[3] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) uses it for the flock of sheep a shepherd keeps for his master.^[3] Corominas dates the word to 1219.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish the word named any flock or herd: Alfonso X's General Estoria speaks of greys of cows, sheep and goats.^[11] Covarrubias (1611) defines it as a flock or herd, as of sheep, goats or pigs, and records the old saying Por tu ley, y por tu Rey, y por tu grei morirás, where it means the commonwealth.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) defines it as a flock of sheep or goats and, metaphorically, the congregation of the faithful under their pastors.^[13] In the Americas the word is recorded in Mexico City from 1548, and in Yucatán in 1563 for a bishop's flock.^[14] The Academy added large livestock “by extension” in 1869 and a group of people of one race, people or nation in 1884.^[15][16] Today the word is literary or formal, and the sense “group of people” is often ironic.^[17][10][1]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has a herd of swine.^[3]
• 1219 – the date Corominas gives for the first record.^[6]
• c. 1230 – Berceo writes grei in the Vida de San Millán (in an 18th-century copy).^[3]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for herds of cattle as well as sheep and goats.^[11]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the saying Por tu ley, y por tu Rey, y por tu grei morirás.^[12]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the sense “congregation of the faithful”.^[13]
• 1869 – the Academy's dictionary adds large livestock.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “people of one race or nation” and gives the etymology from Latin grex.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A flock of small livestock such as sheep or goats.^[5][17][1]
2. A herd of large livestock.^[5]
3. (Christianity) The congregation of the faithful under their pastors: El obispo dirigió una carta a toda su grey.^[5][1]
4. A group of people who share some feature, such as race, region or nation, often used ironically.^[5][10]

Related words

• gregario
• egregio
• agregar
• congregar
• segregar
• Latin grex
• Portuguese grei

Usage notes

In El Salvador and on the Colombian Caribbean coast grey is a separate word, short for naranja grey “grapefruit”, from the English grapefruit.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. grey
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. grey
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. grex
5. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. grey
6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grey
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3865
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1722
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. grey
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. grey
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 935
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 80
14. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. grey
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 394
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 541
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grey
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. grey