grey English · revision 5032

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 700|origins=gem-pro *grēwaz}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ɡreɪ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|greie]], [[inh|ang|grǣġ|alt=grǣg]], Mercian grēi,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) from [[gem-pro|*grēwaz|alt=*grewa-]],^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) the source also of Old Norse grár, Dutch grauw and German grau.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) It has no certain relatives outside Germanic,^(Etymonline) though Barnhart derives it from a root *ĝher-.^(Barnhart 1988) French gris and Italian grigio were borrowed from Germanic.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The colour between black and white: about 700 (Mercian grēi) and about 725 in Barnhart, before 1000 in the OED.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Since the Middle Ages it has described an overcast sky,^(Cresswell 2021) and of hair, grey or turning white, it is from 1207.^(HTOED) Grey friars, the Franciscans, are named for the colour of their habit.^(OED 1989) The noun is from about 1200,^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) and the verb, to become grey, from the 1610s, with an isolated example in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Dismal or gloomy is from the early 18th century in Word Origins and 1794 in the Historical Thesaurus,^(Cresswell 2021)^(HTOED) dull and uneventful from 1830,^(HTOED) and ambiguous, not black or white, from 1835, hence ''grey area''.^(HTOED)^(Cresswell 2021) In the American Civil War the Confederate troops were ''the grays'' from 1863, after their uniforms.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 700 – the colour.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1200 – noun, grey colour.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1207 – of grey hair.^(HTOED)

+ * 1610s – verb, to grow grey.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1794 – gloomy.^(HTOED)

+ * 1835 – ambiguous.^(HTOED)

+ * 1863 – the Confederate grays.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Of the colour of ash or lead, between [[black]] and [[white]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Of the weather, dull and cloudy.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Having grey hair; old.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Dull, boring or sad.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A grey colour.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # A grey horse.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Verb===

+ # To become or make grey, especially of hair.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[greyly]]

+ * [[greyness]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[gray]]

+ * [[greyhound]]

+ * [[grayling]]

+ * [[grizzle]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Grey is the usual British spelling and gray the American; the distinction developed in the 20th century,^(Etymonline) and the spelling is fixed only in some compounds, such as greyhound and grayling.^(Barnhart 1988) The gray, a unit of absorbed radiation (1975), is named after the British radiobiologist L. H. Gray.^(OED 1989)^(MWU 2024) The expression ''the gray mare is the better horse'', of households ruled by the wife, is from the 1540s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}