grey

Etymology

From Middle English grey, from Old English grǣġ, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (compare Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”) (compare Latin rāvus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”)).

adj

1. UK and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
2. (South Africa, slang) Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).

verb

1. UK and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
   Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split. 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck

noun

1. UK and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
   Pioneer seemed now to have the game in his own hands; but the Captain, by taking two desperate leaps, cut off a corner, by which he regained the ground he had lost by the fall, and was up with the grey the remainder of the chase. 1833, Sporting Magazine, volume 6, page 400