See also: gřėχ́

English edit

Etymology edit

Latin grex (flock).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

grex (plural greges or grexes)

  1. (biology) A multicellular aggregate of amoeba.
  2. (horticulture) A kind of group used in horticultural nomenclature, applied to the progeny of an artificial cross from specified parents, in particular for orchids.
    Synonym: gx

Derived terms edit

Further reading edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

From Proto-Italic *greks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (to assemble, gather together). Indo-European cognates include Lithuanian gurguole (mass, crowd) and gurgulys (chaos, confusion), Old Church Slavonic гръсть (grŭstĭ, handful), as well as other words listed at *h₂ger-.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

grex m (genitive gregis); third declension

  1. (zoology) a group of smaller animals: a flock (of birds, sheep, etc.), a pack (of dogs, wolves, etc.), a swarm (of insects), etc.
  2. (figurative) a similar group of other things
    Synonyms: cumulus, acervus, massa, mōlēs, multitūdō
  3. a group of people: a crowd, a clique, a company, a band, a troop, etc.
    Synonyms: multitūdō, turba
  4. (sports) a team of charioteers.
  5. (theater) a troupe of actors.

Usage notes edit

Properly, a herd or drove of larger animals form a pecus n, a iumentum (when pulling carts), or an armenta (when pulling a plow), while smaller animals—especially domesticated pecudēs—form a grex. Its use for people is not necessarily pejorative in the way pecus is.

Declension edit

Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative grex gregēs
Genitive gregis gregum
Dative gregī gregibus
Accusative gregem gregēs
Ablative grege gregibus
Vocative grex gregēs

Hyponyms edit

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Descendants edit

  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: gregge
  • Gallo-Romance:
  • Ibero-Romance:
  • Borrowings:
    • English: grex
    • ? Old Irish: graigh
    • Proto-Albanian: [Term?]
    • ? Proto-Brythonic: [Term?]

References edit

Further reading edit

  • grex”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • grex”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • grex in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
  • Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • a theatrical company: familia, grex, caterva histrionum
    • the manager: dominus gregis
    • to feed a flock (of goats): pascere gregem
    • the herds are grazing: greges pascuntur (Verg. G. 3. 162)
  • "Pecus; Jumentum; Armentum; Grex" in H.H. Arnold's translation of Ludwig von Döderlein's Hand-Book of Latin Synonymes (1841), pp. 158–9.