gris

Forms

gris m or f (masculine and feminine plural grises)^[1]

Etymology

It is a word of Germanic origin, probably borrowed from Old Occitan gris (“grey”), which is from Frankish *gris (“grey”).^[2][3][1] The DLE says only that it perhaps comes from Occitan, and Bénaben and Gómez de Silva derive it from the Frankish word directly or through Old French.^[4][5][6] The Frankish word is Proto-Germanic *grīsaz, continued in Old English grīs, Old Saxon grīs, Dutch grijs and Old High German grīs, and in German greis (“aged”).^[7] Its further origin is unknown; a link with *grēwaz (“grey”) is formally difficult.^[7][1]

Corominas argues that the word came from France with the fur trade: in Castilian it was at first used almost only of the grey fur of a squirrel, and the colour was called pardo. Catalan gris is found in 1435, but the Occitan word is older, used by the first troubadour, William of Poitiers, in the 11th century; it may also have come by sea from northern France.^[2] He rejects the idea that Vulgar Latin took the word from common Germanic: in early Germanic it is attested only in Low German and Dutch, so Gallo-Romance must have taken it from Old Dutch or Frankish; Italian grigio may be a Gallicism or come from Frankish directly.^[2]

The oldest Spanish form had a feminine grisa, as in grisa and French grise; it is not an Aragonese form, as had been thought.^[2] Because the word was felt as a noun in apposition, the name of the fur, it came to be used beside feminine nouns and became an adjective of one ending.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit for the word itself is the Ordenamiento de posturas of Jerez of 1268, which fixes the price of furs: penna de gris çinquenta mrs. “a fur of grey [squirrel], fifty maravedís”.^[8] DEMel likewise has gris in the Cortes of 1268.^[9] The DCECH's first record is peña grisa “grey fur” in a Toledo inventory of 1273.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages gris was a furrier's word: peña gris or peña grisa was a lining made of squirrel fur, and the noun grisa named the squirrel itself in the 13th-century tariffs of Santander and in López de Ayala's book on hawking (1386).^[2] Ayala also has girifaltes grises “grey gerfalcons”, and the Cancionero de Baena already writes enforrada en peña gris with the feminine noun.^[2] Neither the glossaries of about 1400 nor the dictionaries of Palencia and Nebrija have the word.^[2]

From the 16th century the colour word came into general use: Illescas (1565) speaks of habits of grey colour, Góngora of ámbar gris, and Oudin enters it as a colour adjective without limits.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) calls it a dark colour between brown and black and, after Becanus, derives it from a Flemish or German verb meaning “to weep”, because mourners wear grey;^[10][11] Autoridades repeats this.^[10][11] Autoridades also records the squirrel and an Andalusian gris “very cold air or weather”, still used in hace gris;^[11][2] Corominas thinks this alludes to the grey cloudy days of winter.^[11][2]

The modern figurative senses “dull, without appeal” and “overcast” are in the DLE, and in Spain under Franco los grises were the armed police, after the colour of their uniform.^[4]

Timeline

• 1268 – the Jerez price ordinance values a penna de gris, a squirrel fur.^[8]
• 1273 – peña grisa in a Toledo inventory, the DCECH's first record.^[2]
• a1284 – the Castilian translation of the Cantigas de Santa María mentions a pena de gris.^[8]
• 1386 – López de Ayala's book of hawking has grisa for the squirrel and girifaltes grises.^[2]
• 1435 – first record of Catalan gris.^[2]
• 16th century – the BDELC's date for the general use of the colour word.^[3]
• 1549 – first record in the Americas, de color pardo gris in Santo Domingo.^[12]
• 1565 – Illescas writes of habits of grey colour.^[2][11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from a Flemish or German word for weeping.^[10]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the Andalusian sense “cold air”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. grey: of the colour of ash or steel, made by mixing white and black (also a noun, the colour).^[4][1]
2. Lacking appeal or originality; dull: Fue una reunión gris y sin sorpresas.^[4][1]
3. Overcast (nublado), cloudy: Amaneció un domingo gris.^[4][1]

Noun

1. (colloquial) Cold, or a cold wind.^[4]
2. (zoology) The petigrís, a variety of squirrel prized for its fur.^[4]
3. (Spain, colloquial, usually plural) A member of the former armed police, whose uniform was grey.^[4]

Word family

• grisáceo
• agrisar
• grisura

Related words

• petigrís
• Old Occitan gris
• Italian grigio

Usage notes

Set phrases include gris marengo “dark grey, close to black” and gris perla “pearl grey”.^[4] Unrelated is grisú “firedamp”, from French.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 218
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. gris
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. gris
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. gris
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 336
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 191
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. gris
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. gris
10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 938
11. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 81
12. ^ 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. gris