grue

See also: Grue

Contents

EnglishEdit

WOTD – 14 May 2009

PronunciationEdit

• enPR: gro͞o, IPA^(key): /ɡɹuː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophone: grew

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle English gruen. Probably from Middle Low German gruwen or Middle Dutch gruwen (Dutch gruwen), both from Proto-Germanic *grūwijanan.

VerbEdit

grue (third-person singular simple present grues, present participle gruing, simple past and past participle grued)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To be frightened; to shudder with fear.

TranslationsEdit

shudder — see shudder

NounEdit

grue (plural grues)

1. A shiver, a shudder.
   • 1921, John Buchan, The Path of the King, chapter 9

     There was a sharp grue of ice in the air.

   • 1964, Geoffrey Jenkins, A Grue of Ice (title)

TranslationsEdit

shudder — see shudder

Etymology 2Edit

Back-formation from gruesome.

NounEdit

grue (uncountable)

1. Any byproduct of a gruesome event, such as gore, viscera, entrails, blood and guts.

   The butcher was covered in the accumulated grue of a hard day's work

   There was grue everywhere after the accident

   • 1958, Samuel Youd, writing as John Christopher, The Caves of Night

     'I've told you - it wasn't much. He tried to kiss me.' She smiled slightly. 'Just after he had shown me the family skeletons.' / 'What a lovely bit of grue!'

   • 1996, Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body [1]

     Carrie is Cinderella in the body language of menstrual blood and raging hormones. King’s adolescent joy in grimaces and groans, the Mad magazine humor, and the staple of “grue” hardly need mentioning.

   • 2002, Carole Nelson Douglas, Chapel Noir [2]

     “[...] She is quite agreeable to gruesome ghost stories, but appalled by the lust for life.” / “I admit that I am surprised by how well she handles sheer grue, better than I.”

   • 2004, Talbot Mundy, Guns of the Gods [3]

     “This is the grue,” said Dick, holding his lantern high. / Its light fell on a circle of skeletons, all perfect, each with its head toward a brass bowl in the center.

Etymology 3Edit

Probably from gruesome; first used in Jack Vance's Dying Earth universe in the 1940s, but popularized by the text-based computer game Zork in 1980.

NounEdit

grue (plural grues)

1. A fictional man-eating predator that dwells in the dark.
   • 1981, Byte magazine (volume 6):

     I managed to get into the house through the front once, but I was plunged into darkness and eaten by a monster called a grue.

   • 2009, "Jas", Hazadous ^[sic] Australian animals the GRUE.... your guide (on Internet newsgroup rec.travel.australia+nz)

     To find a grue, turn off the light at night, or go for a walk in a dark place (but carry a flashlight with you).

   • 2004, "M.D. Dollahite", How would you imagine a grue? (on Internet newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction)

     Incidentally, the best official text description I know of is in Sorcerer, when you actually become a grue and visit a grue colony. IIRC, even that description is vague, but does cannonize^[sic] that they are large four-legged reptiles.

Etymology 4Edit

Blend of green +‎ blue. Coined by Nelson Goodman to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science.

AdjectiveEdit

grue (not comparable)

1. (philosophy) Of an object, green when first observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time.
   • 1965, Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction and Forecast,

     The grue property is defined as: x is grue if and only if x is green and is observed before the year 2000, or x is blue and is not observed before the year 2000.

   • 2007, Michael Clark, Paradoxes from A to Z‎

     The unexamined emeralds cannot be both green and grue, since if they are grue and unexamined they are blue.

2. (linguistics) Green or blue, as a translation from languages such as Welsh that do not distinguish between these hues.

TranslationsEdit

philosophy: of an object that is first green, then blue

• Dutch: bloen
• German: blün (de)

• Greek: πρασινογάλαζος (el) m (prasinogálazos)
• Portuguese: verzul, verul

linguistics: green or blue in languages that do not distinguish the two colors

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 青 (zh)

• Dutch: bloen
• German: blün (de)
• Greek: πρασινογάλαζος (el) m (prasinogálazos)
• Guaraní: hovy
• Japanese: 青い (ja) (aoi)
• Kaingang: tánh

• Korean: 푸르다 (ko) (pureuda)
• Lakota: tȟó
• Mopan Maya: yaʼax
• Old Tupi: obý
• Russian: зи́ний m (zínij) (цвет)
• Thai: เขียว (th) (kǐao)
• Vietnamese: xanh (vi), thanh (vi)

See alsoEdit

• aquamarine
• bleen
• blue-green
• turquoise
• Wikipedia article on grue

Etymology 5Edit

NounEdit

grue (uncountable)

1. (slang) nutraloaf, a bland mixture of foods served in prisons

AnagramsEdit

• geru, regu, urge

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FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin grūs

PronunciationEdit

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁy/

NounEdit

grue f (plural grues)

1. crane (bird)
2. crane (machine)
3. (colloquial) prostitute, hooker

Derived termsEdit

• gruter

AnagramsEdit

• urge, urgé

Further readingEdit

• “grue” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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LatinEdit

NounEdit

grue

1. ablative singular of grūs

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Norwegian BokmålEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Middle Low German, related to gruve (“mine”) and grav (“grave”).

NounEdit

grue f, m (definite singular grua or gruen, indefinite plural gruer, definite plural gruene)

1. fireplace

SynonymsEdit

• ildsted

Etymology 2Edit

From Middle Low German.

VerbEdit

grue (present tense gruer, past tense grua or gruet, past participle grua or gruet) grue (present tense gruer; past tense grudde; past participle grudd)

1. To be queasy in anticipation of something.
   • Han gruet for morgendagen.
     • He was queasy about the following day.
   • Han grudde seg til tannlegen.
     • He was queasy about [the coming visit to] the dentist.

Usage notesEdit

Can be used electively with the reflexive pronoun seg.