The story
- Old English · inherited fromgrīġhund
- English todaygreyhound
From Old English grīġhund, from a cognate or borrowing of Old Norse grøy (“bitch”) (whence Icelandic grey, thus not related to the colour grey) plus hund (“hound”). Altered by folk etymology to appear to be grey + hound and so in the form grayhound by analogy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.