greyhound
pronunciation
How to pronounce greyhound in British English:
UK [ˈɡreɪhaʊnd]
How to pronounce greyhound in American English:
US [ˈɡreɪhaʊnd]
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- Noun:
- a tall slender dog of an ancient breed noted for swiftness and keen sight; used as a racing dog
Word Origin
- greyhound
- greyhound: [OE] Most greyhounds are not grey – and there is no etymological reason why they should be. For the element grey- in their name has no connection with the colour-term grey. It comes from an unrecorded Old English *grīeg ‘bitch’, a relative of Old Norse grøy ‘bitch’.
- greyhound (n.)
- Old English grighund (West Saxon), greghund (Anglian) "greyhound," probably from grig- "bitch," a word of unknown etymology, + hund "dog" (see hound (n.)). The first element in the name apparently has nothing to do with color, as most of the hounds are not gray, but the exact sense of it must have been early forgotten, as it has been long associated with the color in popular imagination. In some Middle English forms it appears to be conformed to Grew, an old word for "Greek" (from Old French Griu). The Old Norse form of the word is preserved in Hjalti's couplet that almost sparked war between pagans and Christians in early Iceland:Vilkat goð geyjagrey þykkjumk FreyjaI will not blaspheme the gods,but I think Freyja is a bitch
Example
- 1. " Kathy , " I said as we boarded a greyhound in pittsburgh
- 2. Today greyhound racing remains a very lucrative business .
- 3. Its powerful thigh muscles allow its legs to pump more rapidly than the spindly greyhound 's can .
- 4. A man he met on the greyhound bus gave him a room until he found his feet .
- 5. It was probably a greyhound bus ticket .