Meanings
griffe1
plural griffes
- A claw-like ornament at the base of a column.
The primary use of this is to give the column a broader base and to diminish the amount of the cutting away of the solid stone. The griffe, however, is often used for elaborate ornamentation, being carved into vegetable or even animal form.
2013, Russell Sturgis, Francis A. Davis, Sturgis' Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture and Building: An Unabridged Reprint of the 1901-2 Edition, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 323
griffe2
plural griffes · alternative grif
- USdateddialectalhistoricalA person of mixed (black and white) race, especially the offspring of a mulatto (person of mixed black and white ancestry) and a person of fully black ancestry.
Saint-Domingue's complex system of racial classification allowed for no fewer than eight “mixed” racial parental combinations that could produce a griffe, as infamously calculated by Moreau.
2017, Terry Rey, The Priest and the Prophetess: Abbé Ouvière, Romaine Rivière, and the Revolutionary Atlantic World, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
Origin
griffe · noun
- Frenchgriffe
- Frenchgriffe
- Englishgriffe
Borrowed from French griffe (“claw”).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →griffe · noun
- Spanishgrifo
- Frenchgriffe
- Englishgriffe
From Cajun French (in period American English usage) and from general French griffe (in reference to such people in e.g. Haiti), perhaps from (American) Spanish grifo (supposedly "curly-haired").
More words from French, Spanish
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with griffe
Sounds the same
Cite this entry
griffe. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/griffe
“griffe.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/griffe. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “griffe,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/griffe.
Source: griffe on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.