外博词典，懂英语单词快速记忆法的在线英语词典

greenness (n.)

Old English grennes "green color; quality of being green," in plural, "green things, plants;" see green (adj.) + -ness. Meaning "immaturity" is from early 15c. Walpole coined greenth (1753) in the same sense.

Greenwich

town on the south bank of the Thames adjoining London, Old English Gronewic (918), Grenewic (964), literally "green harbor" or "green trading place." The Royal Observatory there was founded June 22, 1675, by King Charles II specifically to solve the problem of finding longitude while at sea. In October 1884, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, D.C., for the International Meridian Conference. They decided to adopt a single world meridian, passing through the principal Transit Instrument at the observatory at Greenwich, as the basis of calculation for all longitude and a worldwide 24-hour clock. The Greenwich motion passed 22-1; San Domingo voted against it; France and Brazil abstained. The Greenwich Village quarter of New York City has been symbolic of "American bohemia" at least since 1903.

greet (v.)

Old English gretan "to come in contact with" in any sense ("attack, accost" as well as "salute, welcome," and "touch, take hold of, handle," as in hearpan gretan "to play the harp"), "seek out, approach," from West Germanic *grotjan (source also of Old Saxon grotian, Old Frisian greta, Dutch groeten, Old High German gruozen, German grüßen "to salute, greet"), of uncertain origin.

In English, German, and Dutch, the primary sense has become "to salute," but the word once had much broader meaning. Perhaps originally "to resound" (via notion of "cause to speak"), causative of Proto-Germanic *grætanan, root of Old English grætan (Anglian gretan) "weep, bewail," from PIE *gher- (2) "to call out." Greet still can mean "cry, weep" in Scottish & northern England dialect, though this might be from a different root. Grætan probably also is the source of the second element in regret. Related: Greeted; greeting.

greeter (n.)

late 14c., agent noun from greet.

greeting (n.)

Old English greting "salutation," verbal noun from gretan (see greet). Related: Greetings. First record of greeting card is from 1876.

gregarious (adj.)

1660s, "disposed to live in flocks" (of animals), from Latin gregarius "pertaining to a flock; of the herd, of the common sort, common," from grex (genitive gregis) "flock, herd," from PIE *gre-g-, reduplicated form of root *ger- "to gather." Of persons, "sociable," first recorded 1789. Related: Gregariously; gregariousness.

gregorian (adj.)

"pertaining to Gregory," from Late Latin Gregorianus, from Gregorius (see Gregory). From c. 1600 of church music, in reference to Gregory I the Great (pope from 590-604), who traditionally codified it; 1640s in reference to new calendar (introduced 1582) from Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585); due to Protestant resistance, the calendar was not introduced in England and the American colonies until 1752.

Gregorian (adj.)

"pertaining to Gregory," from Late Latin Gregorianus, from Gregorius (see Gregory). From c. 1600 of church music, in reference to Gregory I the Great (pope from 590-604), who traditionally codified it; 1640s in reference to new calendar (introduced 1582) from Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585); due to Protestant resistance, the calendar was not introduced in England and the American colonies until 1752.

Gregory

masc. proper name, popular in England and Scotland by mid-12c. (Pope Gregory I sent the men who converted the English to Christianity), nativization of Late Latin Gregorius, literally "wakeful" (equivalent to Latin Vigilantius), from Greek gregorios, a derivative of gregoros "to be watchful," from PIE root *ger- (2) "to be awake" (source also of Sanskrit jagarti "he is awake," Avestan agarayeiti "wakes up, rouses"). At times confused with Latin gregarius (see gregarious).

gremlin (n.)

"small imaginary creature blamed for mechanical failures," oral use in R.A.F. aviators' slang from Malta, the Middle East and India is said to date to 1923. First printed use perhaps in poem in journal "Aeroplane" April 10, 1929; certainly in use by 1941, and popularized in World War II and picked up by Americans (for example New York Times Magazine April 11, 1943). Of unknown origin. OED says "probably formed by analogy with GOBLIN." Speculations in Barnhart are a possible dialectal survival of Old English gremman "to anger, vex" + the -lin of goblin; or Irish gruaimin "bad-tempered little fellow." Surfer slang for "young surfer, beach trouble-maker" is from 1961 (short form gremmie by 1962).