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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Greek

Greek \Greek\, a. [AS. grec, L. Graecus, Gr. ?: cf. F. grec. Cf. Grecian.] Of or pertaining to Greece or the Greeks; Grecian.

Greek calends. See under Greek calends in the vocabulary.

Greek Church (Eccl. Hist.), the Eastern Church; that part of Christendom which separated from the Roman or Western Church in the ninth century. It comprises the great bulk of the Christian population of Russia (of which this is the established church), Greece, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Greek Church is governed by patriarchs and is called also the Byzantine Church.

Greek cross. See Illust. (10) Of Cross.

Greek Empire. See Byzantine Empire.

Greek fire, a combustible composition which burns under water, the constituents of which are supposed to be asphalt, with niter and sulphur.
--Ure.

Greek rose, the flower campion.

Greek

Greek \Greek\, n.

  1. A native, or one of the people, of Greece; a Grecian; also, the language of Greece.

  2. A swindler; a knave; a cheat. [Slang]

    Without a confederate the . . . game of baccarat does not . . . offer many chances for the Greek.
    --Sat. Rev.

  3. Something unintelligible; as, it was all Greek to me.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Greek

Old English Grecas, Crecas (plural), early Germanic borrowing from Latin Graeci "the Hellenes," from Greek Graikoi. Aristotle, who was the first to use Graikhos as equivalent to Hellenes ("Meteorologica" I.xiv), wrote that it was the name originally used by Illyrians for the Dorians in Epirus, from Graii, native name of the people of Epirus.\n

\nBut a modern theory (put forth by German classical historian Georg Busolt, 1850-1920), derives it from Graikhos "inhabitant of Graia" (literally "gray"), a town on the coast of Boeotia, which was the name given by the Romans to all Greeks, originally to the Greek colonists from Graia who helped found Cumae (9c. B.C.E.), the important city in southern Italy where the Latins first encountered Greeks. Under this theory, it was reborrowed in this general sense by the Greeks.\n

\nThe Germanic languages originally borrowed the word with an initial -k- sound (compare Old High German Chrech, Gothic Kreks), which probably was their initial sound closest to the Latin -g- at the time; the word was later refashioned.\nIt was subtle of God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author -- and not to learn it better. [Nietzsche, "Beyond Good and Evil," 1886]\nMeaning "the Greek language" is from late 14c.; meaning "unintelligible speech, gibberish" is from c.1600. Meaning "Greek letter fraternity member" is student slang, 1900.

Greek

late 14c., from Greek (n.). Earlier Gregeis (c.1300), from Old French Gregois; also Greekish (Old English Grecisc). In venery, "anal," by 1970. Greek gift is from "Æneid," II.49: "timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."\n

Wiktionary
greek
  1. (misspelling of Greek English) n. 1 Nonsense writing or talk; gibberish 2 (context slang English) anal sex. v

  2. 1 (context computing English) to display a placeholder instead of text, especially to optimize speed in displaying text that would be too small to read 2 (context computing English) to fill a template with nonsense text (particularly the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem%20ipsum), so that form can be focused on instead of content

Wikipedia
Greek

Greek may refer to:

Greek (disambiguation)
  1. Redirect Greek
Greek (TV series)

Greek (stylised as GRΣΣK) is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on ABC Family from July 9, 2007 to March 7, 2011. The series follows students of the fictitious Cyprus-Rhodes University (CRU), located in Ohio, who participate in the school's Greek system. The show's plots often take place within the confines of the fictional fraternities Kappa Tau Gamma (ΚΤΓ) and Omega Chi Delta (ΩΧΔ), or the fictional sorority Zeta Beta Zeta (ΖΒZ). Throughout the course of the series, other non-Greek characters and situations are introduced, but they all tie into larger relationships with the Greeks. The series follows Rusty and Casey Cartwright as they endure the events surrounding the Greek system at Cyprus-Rhodes. There are six chapters, arranged into four seasons. The series stars Jacob Zachar and Spencer Grammer as the lead characters. On April 7, 2016 it was announced that Greek will return for a reunion movie.

Greek (opera)

Greek is an opera in two acts composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage to a libretto adapted by Turnage and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff's 1980 verse play Greek. The play and the opera are a re-telling of Sophocles's Greek tragedy Oedipus the King with the setting changed to the East End of London in the 1980s. The opera was first performed on 17 June 1988 in the Carl-Orff-Saal, Munich, in a co-production by the Munich Biennale, the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC.

Greek (play)

Greek is a play by Steven Berkoff.

It was first performed at the Half Moon Theatre in London on 11 February 1980, in a production directed by the author. The cast was:

  • Eddy & Fortune-teller: Barry Philips
  • Dad & Manager of cafe: Matthew Scurfield
  • Wife, Doreen & Waitress 1: Linda Marlowe
  • Mum, Sphinx & Waitress 2: Janet Amsden

It is a retelling of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Berkoff wrote:

"Greek came to me via Sophocles, trickling its way down the millenia until it reached the unimaginable wastelands of Tufnell Park ... In my eyes, Britain seemed to have become a gradually decaying island, preyed upon by the wandering hordes who saw no future for themselves in a society which had few ideals or messages to offer them."

The play was used as the basis for a well-received opera of the same name composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage and first performed in 1988.

Usage examples of "greek".

And Captain Abernethy and George the Greek bore into the cabin a third oblong box, exactly similar in appearance to the box of Reginald Maltravers and the box which contained the evidence against Logan Black, and set it on the floor.

Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson the genial coachman, and Washington Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the house boat Annabel Lee, a negro as large and black as Jefferson himself, took a two-hour trick with the spades and then lay down and slept while Abernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworth dug for an equal length of time.

While Makerakera the expert on aggression sweated frantically to weld together a scratch team of whoever could be spared to join him - Choong from Hong Kong, Jenny Fender from Indiana, Stanislaus Danquah from Accra, and some trainees - the little Greek Pericles Phranakis turned his back on the catastrophe and went away down a path of his own, to a land where success had crowned his efforts with a wreath of bay.

That term was a Greek bastardization of the Persian province of Fars, the homeland of the old Achaemenid dynasty.

Troy to beat the Achaian Greeks and go on to establish an empire that would link Asia and Europe.

Rush, a champion of reform in education, thought Greek and Latin were outmoded and should be replaced with the study of modern languages, which Adams considered thoroughly wrongheaded.

Greek Orthodox priest carried on the breeze to the hillock where Adler and I stood in the shade of a cypress tree to observe the funeral of Sophia Morelli.

Greeks might be justly foreseen, he adopts the two effectual methods of corruption and education.

A city surrounded by the River Hebrus, and six leagues to the south of Adrianople, received from its double wall the Greek name of Didymoteichos, insensibly corrupted into Demotica and Dimot.

Mahomet assured them that on his return to Adrianople he would redress the grievances, and consult the true interests, of the Greeks.

Ionian, Aeolian, and Dorian Greek cities and seaports of Asia Province made absolutely sure they treated this eastern potentate with all the obsequious prostrations his sort desired.

For instead of using his own men to implement it, the King had directed that each local community of Aeolian or Ionian or Dorian Greeks should do the killing.

They all consorted together, talking various dialects of Aeolic, Ionian, Attic Greek, and so forth, which were plainly not intelligible to each other.

Then he exchanged a few words in Greek with an invisible gentleman called Aesculapius, and turned to the Wart.

The evening was again spent with the soldiers, who did their utmost to amuse them with Greek and Albanian songs and freaks of jocularity.