Etymology

greenshirt

G2R1E1E1N1S1H4I1R1T1

Today it means: A member of the Social Credit Party, especially as thought to resemble a member of a fascist movement. Full definition →

English shirt ← Middle English schirte ← Old English sċyrte
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  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. Englishgreen
  8. Proto-Indo-European*(s)ker-der.?
  9. Proto-Germanic*skertaną
  10. Proto-Germanic*skurtaz
  11. Proto-Germanic*skurtijǭ
  12. Proto-West Germanic*skurtijā
  13. Old Englishsċyrte
  14. Middle Englishschirte
  15. Englishshirt
  16. English todaygreenshirt

Bahuvrihi of green + shirt. Cf. Brownshirt (“Nazi”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.