Greekish, a. and n.
(ˈgriːkɪʃ)
Forms: 1 grécisc, 2–3 grekisc, (2 gerkisc), 3 grikisc, grickischs, 3–4 grickisshe, (4 north. greckes, grekkis), 4–5 crekische, crekkyshe, grekkisch, grekyssch, -eshe, 5–6 grekish(e, -ysh, -ysshe, (6 greakishe), 6– Greekish.
[In branch I, repr. OE. crécisc, grécisc (= OHG. crêhhisc, crêchisc), f. Créc-as, Gréc-as (see Greek n.) + -isc, -ish. In branch II, a new formation on Greek n. or a. + -ish.]
A. adj. I. 1. Of or pertaining to Greece or the Greeks; Greek, Grecian. arch.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 2121 (Gött.) All on þis side þe grekkisch [Trin. grickisshe, Cott. greckes, Fairf. grekkis] see. a 1400 Octouian 1837, I suede hem to the Grekyssch see. 1412–20 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xiii, They met a grekishe shyp. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. clix. 168 b/2 He beynge there amonge the grekysshe Phylosophers. 1591 Spenser Virg. Gnat 547 The..famous light of all the Greekish hosts. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. 187 A Greekish Carmosell which came into Africa to steal Negroes. 1600 Surflet Countrie Farme vi. xvi. 760 To make wine like vnto greekish wine. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 221 All the Greekish heads, which with one voyce Call Agamemnon Head and Generall. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 207 Diodorus Siculus..went on with the Greekish historie. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §18. 309 The very Names of many of the Greekish Gods were originally Egyptian. 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 45 An ancient sort of Greekish Bricks. 1812 W. Tennant Anster F. i. 3 Muse, that from top of thine old Greekish hill, Didst the harp-fing'ring younker view. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 163 A certain island-man of old..Voyaged awhile in Greekish seas. |
† 2. With reference to the language, its words, phrases, etc.; = Greek a. 2. Also occas. of a person: Speaking Greek. Obs.
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. ii. (1890) 258 Heora discipulas wæron wel ᵹelærde ᵹe in Grecisc ᵹereorde ᵹe in Lædenisc. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 117 Episcopus is gerkisc noma. c 1200 Ormin 4304 Writenn o Grickisshe boc. Ibid. 4307 Affterr Grickisshe spæche. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. i. pr. i. 21 (Sk.) In the nethereste hem or bordure of thise clothes men redden..a Grekissh P, that signifyeth the lyf Actif. 1481 Caxton Godefroy 215 The latyns vnderstode no grekysshe language. 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 10 The outward part..spreadyng like vnto the winges of Battes, called therfore by the Grekish name, πτερυγοειδεις. 1594 Carew Tasso (1881) 17 Two hundred followed of the Greekish tong. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 87 They speake all Greeke..Wilt thou, fourescore and six, be Greekish now? |
† 3. Of or pertaining to the Eastern Church: = Greek a. 3. Obs.
| 1606 G. W[oodcocke] tr. Justin's Hist. LI 2 a, Andronicus Paleologus the elder..returned againe to the Greekish Rites. 1614 Bp. Hall Recoll. Treat. 459 The Greekish Church (so the Russes tearm themselves). 1639 R. Gentilis Servita's Inquis. (1676) 865 The power of punishing Offences in the Greekish Church, hath always been in the Prince. |
4. In special collocations: † Greekish fire = Greek fire (see fire n. 8 b); † Greekish hay, a leguminous plant, fenugreek; † Greekish nettle, Greek Nettle, Urtica pilulifera.
| c 1205 Lay. 628 Stal fiht heo makeden, mid Grickisce fure. a 1225 Ancr. R. 402 Grickischs fur is imaked of reades monnes blode. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 702 For wont of gresse, on trefoil lette hem byte On gooldis wilde, on letuce, greekish hey. c 1450 Alphita (Anecd. Oxon.) 193 Crekische nettle [MS. netche]. 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxxix. 162 Grekys fyre may be so called wel by cause that it was first founde by the grekys beyng at the sege byfore troye. |
II. 5. Somewhat Greek in style or character; resembling Greek persons or things; characteristic of a Greek or Greeks.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 157 Id quod vulgò amat fieri, for solet fieri, is but a strange and grekysh kind of writing. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxvii. (1887) 104 Such people, as though barbarous in nature, yet by traine and learning, were become greekish. 1583 Fulke Defence xxi. 507 So many Greekish and Latine-like terms. 1610 Healey Vives on St. Aug. Citie of God i. iv. 9 The truely Greekish leuity. 1786 Burns Ordination xi, There, Learning, with his Greekish face, Grunts out some Latin ditty. 1862 Merivale Rom. Emp. (1871) V. xli. 83 They condemned as undignified and Greekish any superfluous abundance of words. 1872 F. Hall Recent Exempl. False Philol. 61 note, We have but few Greekish words in -ist so purely formed as agonist, antagonist [etc.]. |
b. Used for: Pagan, heathen.
| 1851 Carlyle Sterling i. vii. 67, I find at this time his religion is as good as altogether Ethnic, Greekish, what Goethe calls the Heathen form of religion. |
† B. absol. and n. Obs. a. The Greek language. b. pl. Greeks.
| c 1050 Byrhtferth's Handboc in Anglia (1885) VIII. 302 Concurrentes on grecisc synt ᵹecwedene epacte. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 63 Bred on grikisce is Larspel to us. Ibid. 93 Weren heo grekisce oðer romenisce oðer egiptisse oðer of hwulche londe swa heo weren þet þe lare iherden. c 1205 Lay. 798 Leteð þa Grickisca [c 1275 Greckes] gliden to grunde. |
Hence ˈGreekishly adv., after the Greek fashion, in accordance with Greek idiom.
| 1831 Blackw. Mag. XXX. 118 Cowper calls him, more simply and Greekishly, ‘compasser of earth’. |