▪ I. Greek, n.
(griːk)
Forms: pl. 1 Cré(a)cas, Gré(a)cas, 3 Greckes, Orm. Grickess, 4 Greks, Grekis, 4–5 -ys, 4–6 -es, 5 Grecys. sing. 5 ? Grece, 6 Greke, 6–7 Greeke, 7– Greek. See also grew.
[In branch I: The OE. Crécas pl., corresponds to OHG. Chrêch, Chriech (MHG. Kriech), Goth. Krêks:—*Krêko-z, an early Teut. adoption of L. Græcus, pl. Græcī (see below), the name applied by the Romans to the people called by themselves Ἕλληνες. The substitution of k for g is commonly accounted for by the supposition that the Teut. initial g, when the word was adopted, still retained its original pronunciation (ɣ), so that k would be the Teut. sound nearest to the Latin g. In all the Teut. langs. the word was ultimately refashioned after Latin, with change of k into g; hence OE. Grécas pl. beside Crécas, MDu. Grieke (Du. Griek), mod.Ger. Grieche, ON. Grikkir pl. In branch II the n. is an absolute use of Greek a.
The L. Græcī is ad. Gr. Γραικοί, said by Aristotle (Meteor. i. xiv) to have been the prehistoric name of the Hellenes in their original seats in Epirus. The word is app. an adjectival derivative of Graius, which is used in Latin as a poetical synonym of Græcus. Recent scholars think the name may have been brought to Italy by colonists from Eubœa, where there is some evidence of its having existed: see Busolt Gr. Gesch. I.2 198.]
I. 1. a. A native of Greece; a member of the Greek race.
| c 893 K. ælfred Oros. v. xii. §4 Þa foran hi on Crecas. c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. iv. xxxii. [xxxi.] (1890) 378 Mid þa aðle ᵹeslæᵹene..þe Grecas nemnað paralysis. c 1200 Ormin 17560 Forr werelld iss nemmnedd Cossmos, Swa summ þe Grickess kiþenn. c 1275 Lay. 801 Leteþ þe Greckes [earlier text þa Grickisca] glide to grunde. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxviii. (1495) 935 All rounde thynges ben callyd Mala amonge the Grekys. c 1400 Destr. Troy 40 Homer..Þat with the Grekys was gret. c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. (E.E.T.S.) 66 Þe bigynynge of Philosophye hadden Indes, Grecys, Percys and Latyns. 1535 Coverdale John xii. 20 There were certayne Grekes (among them that were come vp to Ierusalem to worshipe at the feast). 1605 Daniel Ulisses & Siren 1 Come worthy Greeke, Ulisses, come. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. iii. ii. §2 Those who were renowned among the Greeks for wisdome and learning. 1839 Thirlwall Greece II. xiv. 216 The artful Greek..persuaded Darius of his innocence. 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 200 The Greeks are generally tall, and finely formed. 1871 J. Caird Univ. Serm. (1898) i. 19 The Greek with his hereditary love of freedom and art. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 31 A Greek in the age of Plato. |
b. Proverb.
when Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war: the now usual perversion of Nathaniel Lee's line (see
quot. 1677).
| 1677 Lee Rival Queens iv. ii. 48 When Greeks joyn'd Greeks, then was the tug of War. 1839 Lever H. Lorrequer (1857) 104 When short whist for five-penny points sets in—then Greek meets Greek and we'll have it. 1863 Reade Hard Cash xxxv, Meantime unknown to these bewildered ones, Greek was meeting Greek only a few yards off. |
2. A member or adherent of the Greek Church.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 332 Þe þridde maner & leste yuel, þat men seyn þat greks han, is þat þe prest preyeþ þat god assoyle hym. 1547 Gardiner Let. 21 May in Foxe A. & M. (1583) 1343/2 There is nothyng more commended vnto vs christen men in both the Churches of the Greekes and Latins then lent is. 1696 tr. Du Mont's Voy. Levant 190 Both the Greeks and Romanists were extremely griev'd for the Loss of their Saint. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Of the seven Latin sacraments..the Greeks only admit of five. 1885 Catholic Dict. 389/2 The Greeks generally were averse to the addition of the ‘Filioque’, and to the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist. Ibid. 392/1 In addition to Lent, the Greeks keep the fast of ‘the Mother of God’. |
† 3. A Hellenized Jew;
= Grecian B. 1 b.
Obs.| 1382 Wyclif Acts vi. 1 In tho dayes..grucchinge of Greekis is maad aȝens Ebrews. 1685 Baxter Paraphr. N.T., Acts vi. 1 Those Jews that understood the Greek Tongue, and used the Greek Translation of the Scripture, were called Greeks. |
4. A cunning or wily person; a cheat, sharper,
esp. one who cheats at cards. (
Cf. F.
grec.)
| 1528 Roy & Barlow Rede me, etc. ii. (Arb.) 117 In carde playinge he is a goode greke. 1568 Sat. Poems Reform. ix. 217 A cowle, a cowle for such a Greek Were fitter for to wear. 1664 Floddan F. vii. 69 Giles Musgrave was a Guileful Greek. 1794 Sporting Mag. III. 227 The waiter pillages the greek, The greek the spendthrift fleeces. 1812 Combe Picturesque xix. (Chandos) 75 If I may with freedom speak, I take you for a very Greek. 1823 Moncrieff Tom & Jerry ii. v, Come lads, bustle about; play will begin—some of the Pigeons are here already, the Greeks will not be long following. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. xxxvi. 361 He was an adventurer, a pauper, a blackleg, a regular Greek. 1884 Sat. Rev. 16 Feb. 202/1 Without a confederate the..game of baccarat does not seem to offer many chances for the Greek. |
5. Qualified by
merry,
mad,
gay: A merry fellow; a roysterer; a boon companion; a person of loose habits.
See
grig n.1 5; the relation between the two words is uncertain.
| 1536 Rem. Sedition 7 b, Whom can they refuse, when smythes, coblers, tylers, carters, and such other gay grekes, seme worthy to be theyr gouernours? a 1553 Udall Royster D. i. i. (Arb.) 11 Mathewe Merygreeke. He entreth singing. 1583 Babington Commandm. viii. (1637) 75 O he is a merry greeke, a pleasant companion, and in faith a good fellow. 1597 Return fr. Parnass. i. i. 265 Thou seems a mad Greeke, and I have lovd such ladds of mettall as thou seems to be from mine infancie. [1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. iv. 58 A wofull Cressid 'mong'st the merry Greekes.] 1611 Coryat's Crudities, Panegyr. Verses, Ulysses was a merry Greek they say So Tom is, and the Greeker of the tway. 1635 Heywood Philocothonista 44 To title a drunkard by, wee..strive to character him in a more mincing and modest phrase; as thus:—Hee is a good fellow, or A boone Companion, A mad Greeke, A true Trojan. 1650 Howell Ep. Ded. to Cotgr., They tearm in French, a boon companion or merry greek, Roger bon temps. 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. (1737) 216 Merry-Greeks with crimson Snouts. |
6. slang. An Irishman. (
Cf. Grecian.)
| 1823 ‘Jon Bee’ Dict. Turf, Greek—Irishmen call themselves Greeks—none else follow the same track to the east; throughout this land, many unruly districts are termed Grecian. 1851 Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 226 We had the Greeks (the lately arrived Irish) down upon us more than once. 1872 Standard 3 Sept. 5/2 ‘Greek’, as some of your readers are aware, is colonial slang for ‘Irish’. |
II. [
absol. use of the
adj.: see etymology.]
7. The language of a native of Greece or one of Greek race; the Greek language. Also, a particular form or period of the language, as
late Greek,
Ionic Greek,
modern Greek.
| [c 975 Rushw. Gosp. Matt. xxvii. 46 Hælend miclæ stefnæ cwæþende in grec [MS. gc] god min god min for-whon forletes þu mec.] c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. Prol., Suffise to the thise trewe conclusiouns in englissh, as wel as suffisith to thise noble clerkes grekes thise same conclusiouns in grek. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) ii. 10 The Table aboven his Heved..on the whiche the Title was writen, in Ebreu, Grece and Latyn. a 1400–50 Alexander 5009 Sothly..þe son-tree..Entris in with yndoyes & endis in greke. 1534 Starkey Let. to Cromwell in England (1878) p. x, The knolege of both tongys bothe latyn and greke. 1573 L. Lloyd Marrow Hist. (1653) 127 Cato being aged in his last years went to school to Ennius, to learn the Greek. 1623 B. Jonson in Shaks. Wks. (1st Fo.) Pref. verses, And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke. 1668 Wilkins Real Char. i. i. §3. 3 The Greek was anciently of very great extent, not onely in Europe, but in Asia too, and Afric. 1700 Maidwell in Collect. (O.H.S.) I. 310 Masters for Græc and Latin. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Lady Rich 16 Mar., In Pera they speak Turkish, Greek, Hebrew [etc.]. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Modern or vulgar Greek, is the language now spoken in Greece. Ibid., The modern Greek has divers new words not in the antient. 1866 E. Masson Winer's Gram. N.T. Diction Introd. (ed. 6) 15 The Grammar of Later Greek..has not..been completely and systematically investigated. 1899 Oxford Univ. Cal. 15 The Regius Professor of Greek. |
8. Unintelligible speech or language, gibberish. Also
heathen Greek (rarely
Hebrew-Greek). (
Cf. Hebrew.)
St. Giles's Greek: slang.
| 1600 Dekker Grissil ii. i. (Shaks. Soc.) 17 Far. Asking for some Greek poet, to him he falls..but I'll be sworn he knows not so much as one character of the tongue. Rice. Why, then it's Greek to him. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. ii. 282–7 He spoke greeke..those that vnderstood him, smil'd at one another, and shooke their heads: but..it was Greeke to me. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. v, Svb. Is Ars sacra..A heathen language? Ana. Heathen Greeke, I take it. Svb. How? heathen Greeke? Ana. All's heathen, but the Hebrew. 1647 Cowley Mistress, Discretion ii, Joynture, Portion, Gold, Estate..Are Greek no Lovers understand. 1769 Wesley Jrnl. 1 July (1827) III. 360, I knew this was heathen Greek to them. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Greek. St. Giles's Greek, the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish. 1828 P. Cunningham N.S. Wales (ed. 3) II. 52 A number of the slang phrases current in St. Giles's Greek. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge i, I am a stranger, and this is Greek to me. 1886 Sir F. Doyle Remin. 239 As unintelligible to the person addressed as if it had been Hebrew-Greek. 1892 Nation (N.Y.) 7 July 13/1 Schubert clothed his melodies in wondrous harmonies, which were ‘Greek’ to his contemporaries. |
9. pl. Typogr. Greek characters or types.
| 1894 W. G. Rutherford in Class. Rev. 82 Believing that the new Greeks are likely to be..widely adopted. |
III. 10. attrib. and
Comb., as (sense 1)
Greek-peopled,
Greek speaking adjs., (sense 7)
Greek factory. (See also
Greek a. 2.)
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Universities Wks. (Bohn) II. 91 Oxford is a *Greek factory, as Wilton mills weave carpet. |
| 1896 Westm. Gaz. 11 Nov. 2/2 The *Greek-peopled islands. |
| 1898 Daily News 6 Oct. 3/1 There are *Greek-speaking villages in Syria. |
Hence
ˈGreekess, a female Greek, a Greek woman;
ˈGreekless a., having no Greek; without knowledge of Greek.
| 1846 Worcester (citing Taylor), Greekess. 1902 J. London Let. 3 Mar. (1966) 277 Charmian sends her love to Greek and Greekess and all the Crowd. 1891 Q. Rev. Jan. 217 An appreciable number of Greekless boys wish to go to the Universities. 1891 Pall Mall G. 1 Dec. 3/2 It is intended apparently to institute a Cambridge B.Sc. degree for which there shall be a Greekless Little-Go. |
▸
U.S. College slang. A member of a fraternity or sorority,
esp. one with a name composed of Greek letters;
cf. Greek adj. Additions.
| 1888 N.Y. Times 24 Nov. 3/3 A ‘Greek’ theoretically will go a long ways to do something for a ‘Frater’. 1949 Time 21 Mar. 47/2 Non-fraternity men, who outnumber the Greeks two to one, held a mass meeting. 2003 D. Williams-Wheeler Be my Sorority Sister 14 They are hard working students. They are not like a lot of those other Greeks. |
▪ II. Greek, a. (
griːk)
Also 5–6
Greke, 6
Sc. Greik, 6–7
Greeke, (8
Græc).
[f. Greek n., under the influence of L. Græcus and F. grec adjs., of which it might indeed be regarded as a direct adoption. It is not recorded before the 14th c., and did not supplant Greekish in general use until the 17th c.] 1. a. Of or pertaining to Greece or its people; Hellenic.
| c 1391 Chaucer Astrol. Prol., Thise noble clerkes grekes. 1552 Lyndesay Monarche 1993 The auld Greik Historitiane Diodorus. 1674 Prideaux Lett. (Camden) 23, I will determin all cronologicall controversys which have been ever moved in the Greeke history. 1833 Tennyson Œnone 257, I will not die alone..leaving my ancient love With the Greek woman. 1872 Ruskin Eagle's Nest §168 Every Greek hero called himself chiefly by his paternal name. |
b. Of buildings, works of art, physiognomy, etc.: Resembling what prevailed in Greece, Grecian.
| 1847 Tennyson Princ. Prol. 11 And me that morning Walter show'd the house, Greek, set with busts. 1888 F. Hume Mad. Midas i. iii, The straight Greek nose. |
2. a. As the designation of a language (see
Greek n. 7). Hence, of words, idioms, grammar, etc.: Belonging to or characteristic of the Greek language. Of literary compositions: Written in the Greek language.
Greek fathers: those early Christian fathers (see
father n. 3 b) who wrote in Greek. (In uses like
Greek professor,
Greek scholar, the word is
perh. in most cases to be regarded as the
n. used
attrib.)
| 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. i. Pref. 14 b, The Greke diuines. 1573 L. Lloyd Marrow Hist. (1653) 127 Terentius Varro was almost forty years old, before he took a Greek book in hand, and yet proved excellent in the Greek tongue. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 101 This small packet of Greeke and Latine bookes. 1644 Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 99/1 The ill habit..of wretched barbarizing against the Latin and Greek idiom, with their untutored Anglicisms. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 162 Stout Defenders of the Faith..that..are ready to make their own Testament, if they see a Greek one. 1711 Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) III. 241 A foreign protestant divine, and most learned defender of religion, making the best excuse he can for the Greek-fathers. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., In the living tongues, are still preserved a vast number of Greek terms of art. Ibid. s.v. Accent, Wetstein, Greek professor at Basil. 1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 435/1 Such doctrines as..were confirmed by the Greek fathers of the church. 1845 Stoddart Gram. in Encycl. Metrop. I. 164/1 The Greek or Latin construction. 1866 E. Masson Winer's Gram. N.T. Diction Introd. (ed. 6) 15 The Greek diction of the sacred writers. Ibid. 21 It was in classical Greek philology that this pernicious empiricism was first exploded. 1895 W. A. Copinger in Trans. Bibliogr. Soc. II. ii. 111 Lascaris's Greek Grammar was probably the first book printed in Greek characters. |
b. Greek letter fraternity,
order,
society (
U.S.): a club of students, denoted by two or three Greek letters; as the Phi Beta Kappa (ϕ β κ) society.
| 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. III. vi. cii. 454 The absence of colleges constituting social centres within a university has helped to develop..the Greek letter societies. 1894 H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot x. 146 He encouraged them to join the..Greek letter orders which admitted discussion of such topics. 1898 B'ham Weekly Post 22 Jan. 3/4 This [Kansas] farmer was a Greek-letter fraternity man. |
3. The distinctive epithet of that section of the Christian Church (commonly known also as the
Eastern or
(Holy) Orthodox Church, and now representing the major Christian denominations of Greece, Russia, and other Eastern European countries), which acknowledge the primacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople and which formally renounced communion with the Roman see in the 9th century a.d. Also applied to its clergy, rites, buildings, etc.
| 1560 Becon New Catech. v. Wks. 1564 I. 433, I passe ouer the other auncient fathers and doctours bothe of the Greke and Latin churches. a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. vi. iv. §8 The Greek church first, and in process of time the Latin altered this order [of public penitence]. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The Romanists call the Greek church, the Greek schism. 1838 Penny Cycl. XI. 435/2 The Greek convents follow the strict rule of St. Basilius. Ibid. 436/1 The Greek church under the Turkish dominion has preserved almost entirely its antient organization. 1877 A. W. Thorold in Gd. Words 17 The iconostas, or screen, which in Greek churches separates the body of the church from the sanctuary. |
4. a. In specific names of things of actual or attributed Greek origin or referred to Greek style or usage:
Greek braid (
Greek braid ornament), braid arranged in the pattern of a fret (see
fret n.1 3 b);
Greek bread, a kind of cake or biscuit;
Greek Calends (see
calends 3 b);
Greek chorus, used
transf., in comparisons, etc., to indicate the wise, sympathetic comments or open wailing of the chorus in Attic tragedies (see
chorus 1);
Greek cross (see
cross n. 18);
Greek embroidery (see
quot.);
Greek fire (see
fire n. 8 b);
Greek fret = fret n.1 3 b;
Greek gift, a gift covering some act of treachery, with allusion to Virgil
æn. ii. 49,
timeo Danaos et dona ferentes;
Greek god, (
a) used
transf. and in comparisons to denote a paragon of male physical beauty; (
b) a short hairstyle with curls close to and all over the head;
Greek key (also
Greek design,
Greek pattern)
= Greek fret;
Greek lace = Greek point;
Greek masonry (see
quots.);
† Greek pitch (L.
pix Græca)
= colophony;
Greek point, a kind of needle-made lace.
| 1894 H. Nisbet Bush Girl's Rom. 251 She..began touching the *Greek-braid ornament on the edge of her skirt with trembling fingers. |
| 1893 D. Radford Autobiog. 24 *Greek bread forced into fingers through a mould by pressure. |
| 1863 F. Nightingale in C. Woodham-Smith F. Nightingale (1951) xvii. 291 She [sc. Queen Victoria] always reminds me of the woman in the *Greek chorus..wailing out her inexpressible despair. 1893 E. F. Benson Dodo I. iii. 56 He had no desire to interrupt this rapid monologue of Dodo's. He was quite content to play the part of the Greek chorus. 1913 J. Vaizey College Girl xxiii. 319 Hannah, as Greek Chorus, interposed moral remarks. 1947 A. Huxley Let. 9 Mar. (1969) 568, I visualize him as a kind of philosophical recluse, who comments upon all that is happening from the vantage ground of eternity, and acts as a kind of Greek chorus. 1962 J. Braine Life at Top v. 78 ‘You show him, Killer. You show him.’ It was like a Greek chorus. |
| 1725 Henley tr. Montfaucon's Antiq. Italy (ed. 2) 20 The Church is built in the shape of a *Greek Cross. 1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Ch. xii. (1847) 135 Greek crosses; that is, having four short equal limbs. |
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, *Greek Embroidery, this is a modern work..and consists in arranging upon a flat foundation pieces of coloured cloth or silk, in arabesque designs, and attaching these to the material with Chain, Herring⁓bone, and other Embroidery stitches. |
| 1828 Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) I. 80 [Edward I] gave orders for the employment of a new and dreadful instrument of destruction, the *Greek fire, with which he had probably become acquainted in the East. 1850 Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. i. (1872) 9 It is like the Greek fire used in ancient warfare, which burnt unquenched beneath the water. |
| 1872 Ruskin Fors Clav. II. xxiii. 8 The pattern known as the ‘*Greek fret’. |
| 1885 Times (weekly ed.) 27 Nov. 11/3 [It] would be worse than a *Greek gift. |
| a 1910 W. F. Butler Autobiogr. (1911) iii. 42, I often look now as soldiers pass and marvel what has become of those old *Greek gods. 1955 E. Coxhead Figure in Mist iv. 106 It was irritating that Greek gods should drop off the bus and suddenly reduce Matthew to insignificance. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 193 Greek god, introduced in 1967, a close haircut with flat curls all over the head as seen in statues of Apollo. 1968 Guardian 7 Oct. 7/1 They will give you Greek god treatment, a tight mass of tiny curls. 1969 G. Sims Sand Dollar v. 72 He emerged from the sea looking like a Greek god, his hair bleached nearly white. 1970 O. John Diamond Dress viii. 90 Don't stand there like some Greek god! You've got about three minutes in which to get dressed. |
| 1897 Daily News 16 Jan. 6/5 Tailor-made gowns are finished on the skirt with three or five rows of braiding, usually in trefoil or *Greek key pattern. 1899 Ibid. 19 Apr. 2/1 A Greek key design in sugarwork. |
| 1865 F. B. Palliser Hist. Lace v. 74 The greater part of the conventionally termed *Greek lace is really the Venetian reticella; the designs are of geometric fashion, and often of Oriental character. 1880 L. Higgin Handbk. Embroidery 63 Design for quilt... To introduce squares of Greek or guipure lace. 1960 H. Hayward Antique Coll. 134/1 ‘Greek lace’, a name given to drawn and cut work embroidery, often combined with geometrical needlepoint or pillow lace. |
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Masonry, *Greek Masonry. 1847 Smeaton Builder's Man. 107 Greek masonry is that..where every alternate stone..is made of the whole thickness of the wall. |
| 1657 W. Coles Adam in Eden cclix. [414] The Pomanders, Chaines and Bracelets that are made of..*Greek-pitch are effectuall to warm the brain. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Pitch, Greek Pitch, or Spanish Pitch, is that boiled in water till it have lost its natural smell. |
| 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, *Greek Point. Also known as Roman Lace.. This needle made lace is one of the earliest made, being worked in the Ionian Isles..during the fifteenth century. |
b. In specific names of plants and animals, as
Greek nettle,
Greek tortoise,
Greek valerian: see the
ns. Greek rose [
transl. of L.
rosa græca], a book-name for the Campion.
| 1601 P. Holland Pliny II. 83 The Rose Campion, which our men call the Greeke Rose, and the Greekes name Lychnis. |
Hence
Greeˈkesque a. [
cf. It. grechesco], resembling what is Greek;
ˈGreekified ppl. a. [see
-fy], rendered Greek in style or character, fashioned on a Greek model;
† Greekly adv. Obs., in a Greek fashion; in the Greek language;
ˈGreekness, Greek character or quality.
| 1620 Granger Div. Logike 292, I say of the same kinde Greekely termed homogeneous. 1654 Vilvain Epit. Ess. i. lxxxiv, T' hav the books of the old Testament Greecly transfer'd. a 1861 Mrs. Browning Lett. R. H. Horne (1877) II. liv. 96 The necessary name ‘Psyche’ drew me towards the propriety of holding a certain Greekness in the other names. 1874 Ruskin Fors Clav. (1896) II. xliii. 388 The Greeks sometimes got their own way, as a mob; but nobody, meaning to talk of liberty, calls it ‘Greekness’. 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 100 In the nave of Nôtre Dame every vestige of this Greekesque foliage is got rid of. |
▸
U.S. Of, relating to, or designating college fraternities or sororities,
esp. those with names composed of Greek letters (
cf. sense 2b).
| 1881 N.Y. Times 4 Dec. 2/4 Judge Vinton decided what are known as the ‘Greek fraternity’ cases, holding that the rule of the Faculty..,excluding the members of such societies from the university, was within the limits of their lawful discretion. 1901 H. D. Sheldon Student Life & Customs 169 The O. K. Society arose from an opposition to the Greek fraternity system at Harvard in the year 1858. 1938 Nebraska State Jrnl. 20 Sept. 6/4, I have never inquired as to the exact dues and living expenses at Greek houses, but I have heard they vary from $35 to $70 a month. 2001T. D. Chandler in A. J. D'Angelo et al. Inspiration for Greeks 57 Being Greek has certainly opened doors for me professionally..but perhaps the greatest gift is the cherished friendships with members of other Greek organizations. |
▸
Greek salad n. a salad of a style originating in Greece, typically containing olives, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, and onion, dressed with olive oil and often lemon juice or vinegar.
| 1921 C. A. Patterson Lunch Room as Money Maker 79 (advt.) Here you can obtain pleasing delicacies..on ‘Meatless Days’... For instance, Crab Meat Salad..Potato Salad..*Greek Salad. 1950 F. Venos & L. Pritchard Can the Greeks Cook! 15 A beautiful sight to see..is a colorful Greek salad tastefully arranged on a large platter. 1977 Washington Post (Nexis) 7 Apr. (Maryland Weekly) 12, I passed up the barbecued spare ribs dinner..in favor of souvlaki... This was marinated chunks of beef and Greek salad served on pita bread. 1998 P. Cornwell Point of Origin (1999) 167 ‘One Greek salad’, I said. ‘And a chicken gyro in pita.’ |
▪ III. † Greek, v. Obs. [f. Greek n. Cf. L. Græcārī.] 1. to Greek it: to follow the practice of the Greeks; to play the Greek scholar.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 79 [Drinking]..sometimes as many together as there were letters contained in the names of their mistresses..Insomuch that those were prouerbially said to greeke it that quaft in that fashion. 1660 Durham Life R. Harris 14 The Bishop..tries his Examinate a little in Divinity, but most in other Learning and Greek, where the Bishops strength lay, but so long they both Greeked it, till at last they were both scoted, and to seek for words. 1799 E. Du Bois Piece Fam. Biog. II. 20 As to the t'other dead fellow, I never could greek it at all, that's flat. |
2. Only in
gerund and
vbl. n.: To cheat at cards. (
Cf. Greek n. 4.)
slang.
| 1817 Sporting Mag. L. 284 A discovery of Greeking at Brighton, has made considerable noise this month in the sporting world. 1819 Hermit in Lond. III. 263 Then greeking transactions came on the tapis. 1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II. 247 note, Elements of Greeking. |