Gray
/ɡreɪ/noun
Of a color between black and white, or lacking brightness and vividness.
Did you know?The English word gray comes from Old English grǣg, and its deeper Germanic relatives are so old that they preserve a basic color term long before modern spelling ever existed.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*gʰreh₂-
“to become green, grey, or grow”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*grēgaz
“gray”
Old English
English
grǣg
“gray, ash-colored”
Middle English
English
grey
“gray, ash-colored”
Modern English
English
gray
“a color between black and white”