From Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Low German gruwen or Middle Dutch gruwen (compare Dutch gruwen), both from Proto-Germanic *grūwijaną, perhaps ultimately an imitative derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”), or instead from *gʰer- (“to rub, stroke, grind”).
Meanings
(Scotland) A shiver, a shudder.
A Grue of Ice 1964, Geoffrey Jenkins, (title)
A cold grue went through me—I was unable to touch such a hand. 1992, Alasdair Gray, Poor Things, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 25:
Upon all others the sight of Alison, were it but for a moment, cast a cold grue, not to be remembered without terror. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
From Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Low German gruwen or Middle Dutch gruwen (compare Dutch gruwen), both from Proto-Germanic *grūwijaną, perhaps ultimately an imitative derivative of Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“to bristle”), or instead from *gʰer- (“to rub, stroke, grind”).
Meanings
(Scotland, intransitive, qualifier:archaic except Northern England) To be frightened; also, to shudder with fear; to quake, to tremble.
["]I would have done Mr. Mordaunt's bidding too," he added, relaxing from his note of defiance, into the deferential whining tone with which he cajoled his customers, "if he hadna made use of profane oaths which made my very flesh grue, and caused me, in some sort, to forget myself." 1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, pages 111–112:
(uncountable) Any byproduct of a gruesome event, such as gore, viscera, entrails, blood and guts.
2002, Carole Nelson Douglas, Chapel Noir http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=ZZu4sl0P1EAC&pg=PA336&lpg=PA336&sig=dPR0ntE54xw-h3m6fByM0fgJiuc
“… She is quite agreeable to gruesome ghost stories, but appalled by the lust for life.” / “I admit that I am surprised by how well she handles sheer grue, better than I.”
The butcher was covered in the accumulated grue of a hard day's work
1990, John DeChancie, Castle War!
Incarnadine had to be quick with the sword. Huge wings flapped in time with explosions of grue, and the stink of burnt flesh and feathers filled the air.
2004, Talbot Mundy, Guns of the Gods http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=PUCcyz2L1iwC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&sig=REDDP_txW9FrUWEogxny6lZ4wUo
“This is the grue,” said Dick, holding his lantern high. / Its light fell on a circle of skeletons, all perfect, each with its head toward a brass bowl in the center.
'I've told you - it wasn't much. He tried to kiss me.' She smiled slightly. 'Just after he had shown me the family skeletons.' / 'What a lovely bit of grue!' 1958, Samuel Youd, writing as John Christopher, The Caves of Night:
There was grue everywhere after the accident
Carrie is Cinderella in the body language of menstrual blood and raging hormones. King’s adolescent joy in grimaces and groans, the Mad magazine humor, and the staple of “grue” hardly need mentioning. 1996, Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=iaHQorgoqd4C&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&sig=0unz5oiZA5IURViNe75MsU7vHG4
Probably from gruesome; first used in Jack Vance's Dying Earth universe in the 1940s, but popularized by the text-based computer game Zork in 1980.
Meanings
A fictional man-eating predator that dwells in the dark.
To find a grue, turn off the light at night, or go for a walk in a dark place (but carry a flashlight with you). 2009, Jas, “Hazadous ^([sic]) Australian animals the GRUE.... your guide”, in rec.travel.australia+nz (Usenet):
Incidentally, the best official text description I know of is in Sorcerer, when you actually become a grue and visit a grue colony. IIRC, even that description is vague, but does cannonize^([sic]) that they are large four-legged reptiles. 2004, M.D. Dollahite, “How would you imagine a grue?”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet):
I managed to get into the house through the front once, but I was plunged into darkness and eaten by a monster called a grue. 1981, Byte, volume 6:
Blend of green + blue. The philosophy sense was coined by American philosopher Nelson Goodman in 1955 to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science. The linguistic sense was coined by American linguist Paul Kay in 1975 as a translation from languages such as Welsh that have a basic cover term that covers both the hues called "green" and "blue" in English.
Meanings
(not-comparable) Of an object, green when first observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time.
The grue property is defined as: x is grue if and only if x is green and is observed before the year 2000, or x is blue and is not observed before the year 2000. 1965, Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction and Forecast:
The unexamined emeralds cannot be both green and grue, since if they are grue and unexamined they are blue. 2007, Michael Clark, Paradoxes from A to Z:
(not-comparable) Of a single color inclusive of both green and blue as different shades, used in translations from languages such as Old Welsh and Old Chinese that did not always distinguish between green and blue.
mop yaʼax (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · ru зи́ний (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · nd -luhlaza (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · kgp tánh (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · es azul verde (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · pt verul (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · vi xanh (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · th เขียว (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · tpw obý (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · lkt tȟó (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · nl bloen (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · fr blert (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · pt verzul (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · lbj སྔོན་པོ (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · de blün (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · ja グルー (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · el πρασινογάλαζος (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · mww xiav (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · ja 青い (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · fr blert (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · cih 𑚝𑚯𑚥𑚭 (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · zu -luhlaza (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · cmn 綠藍 /绿蓝 (translations to be checked) · cdh 𑚝𑚯𑚥𑚭 (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · mi namu (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · es verdiazul (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · ko 푸르다 (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · ty ninamu (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · pt verzul (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · tn tala (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · mww xiav (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · xh -luhlaza (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · pt verul (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · cmn 青 (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · nl bloen (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · cy glas (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · egy wAD-D:Y1 (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · el πρασινογάλαζος (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · de blün (philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue) · el γαλαζοπράσινος (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · xct སྔོན་པོ (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors) · mch seene (linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors)
Blend of green + blue. The philosophy sense was coined by American philosopher Nelson Goodman in 1955 to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science. The linguistic sense was coined by American linguist Paul Kay in 1975 as a translation from languages such as Welsh that have a basic cover term that covers both the hues called "green" and "blue" in English.
Meanings
(uncountable) The property of being green when first observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time.
We believe that among emeralds – perhaps among precious stones generally – whether something has the “color” grue is affected by discovery date, but whether it has the color green is not affected by discovery date. 2001, Robert C. Pinto, “Inductive inferences and Goodman’s paradox”, in Argument, Inference and Dialectic: Collected Papers on Informal Logic (Argumentation Library; 4), Dordrecht; Norwell, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, →ISBN, chapter 9 (Logical form and the link between premisses and conclusion), footnote 38, page 92:
Philosophers made their points with thought experiments—[…] the color grue; […] 2001, Bruce Kuklick, “Conclusion”, in A History of Philosophy in America, 1720–2000, Oxford, Oxfordshire; New York, N.Y.: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 283:
[T]he color grue would change in color. Colors do not do this; so ‘grue’ cannot be a color term. 1994, Rita Nolan, “Discursive Practices”, in Cognitive Practices: Human Language and Human Knowledge, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, →ISBN, note 1, page 155:
(uncountable) A single color inclusive of both green and blue as different shades, used in translations from languages such as Old Welsh and Old Chinese that did not always distinguish between green and blue.
Well, as it turns out, there are a handful of cultures that see green and blue as shadings of one color: grue. 1996 August 11, Jim Radeline, “Race theories all wrong”, in The Truth, 107th year, number 224, Elkhart, Ind.: Truth Publishing Co., →OCLC, page A6, column 6:
Grue is the last of the composite categories that languages lose; hence its frequency. The transition to Stage V, where all basic color categories are primary, occurs when grue is replaced by its component primaries blue and green. 1978 September, Paul Kay, Chad K. McDaniel, “The Linguistic Significance of the Meanings of Basic Color Terms”, in Language, volume 54, number 3, Washington, D.C.: Linguistic Society of America, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 631:
Our third hypothesis supposes that grue is based primarily on green but includes blues at lower membership. This hypothesis, the “skewed” grue, is illustrated in Figure 3d. 1985, Don Burgess, Willett Kempton, Robert E. MacLaury, “Tarahumara Color Modifiers: Individual Variation and Evolutionary Change”, in Janet W. D. Dougherty, editor, Directions in Cognitive Anthropology, Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, →ISBN, page 58: