grig en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ɡɹɪɡ/
Etymology
The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig". The word is of uncertain origin, though various theories have been suggested, such as a corruption of "merry as a cricket" or "merry as a Greek", as in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: "Then she's a merry Greek indeed." Johnson suggested that the word originally meant "anything below the natural size" (compare Swedish krik and Scots crick).
Meanings
- (obsolete) A dwarf.
-
A cricket or grasshopper.
The black rooks will fly away, my son, and you'll come back as brown as a berry, and as merry as a grig.
1926, Hope Mirrlees, chapter 5, in Lud-in-the-Mist:
-
A small or young eel.
[W]e assembled at one o'clock, at two sat down to dinner, consisting of capital stewed grigs, a dish Mrs Burt was famous for dressing, a large joint of roast or boiled meat, with proper vegetables and a good-sized pudding or pie […] .
1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 41
- Specifically, the broad-nosed eel. See glut.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| grigs | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Deriveds
merry as a grig · lively as a grig
wikipedia: William Shakespeare · wikipedia: Troilus and Cressida