green

green · noun, adjective¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*gʰreh₁-
2. Proto-Indo-European*gróh₁nis
3. Proto-Germanic*grōniz
4. Proto-West Germanic*grōnī
5. Old Englishgrēne
6. Middle Englishgrene
7. English todaygreen

From Middle English grene, from Old English grēne, from Proto-West Germanic *grōnī, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- (“to grow”). More at grow. Doublet of Gruen. See also North Frisian green, West Frisian grien, Dutch groen, Low German grön, green, greun, German grün, Danish and Norwegian Nynorsk grøn, Swedish grön, Norwegian Bokmål grønn, Faroese grønur, Icelandic grænn. The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is a semantic loan from Spanish verde. In other varieties of English, blue is the color instead associated with obscenity or pornography.

green · verb²

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*grōnijōną
2. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*grōnijan
3. Old English · inherited fromgrēnian“to become green, flourish”
4. Middle English · inherited fromgrenen
5. English todaygreen

From Middle English grenen, from Old English grēnian (“to become green, flourish”), from Proto-West Germanic *grōnijan, from Proto-Germanic *grōnijōną, *grōnijaną (“to become green”), from the adjective (see above). Cognate with Saterland Frisian gräinje, German Low German grönen, German grünen, Swedish gröna, Icelandic gróna.

green · interjection³

From the colors used on traffic lights; green being the one that allows vehicles to move on.

Green · proper noun, adjective, noun⁴

1. Irish · derived fromÓ hUainí
2. Dutch · derived fromGroen
3. German · derived fromGrün
4. English todayGreen

English surname, a topographic name for someone who either lived near a village green, or was just fond of the colour. This name is also translated from other surnames, such as German Grün and Gruen, Dutch Groen, Irish Ó hUainí (from uaine, see Honan), etc. The Irish surname was also erroneously translated from Ó Fathaidh, Ó Fathaigh, from faithche (“lawn”).

Words from the same roots