different between ashy vs grey

English

Etymology

From Middle English asshy, asky, equivalent to ash +? -y.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ?i/
• Rhymes: -æ?i

Adjective

ashy (comparative ashier, superlative ashiest)

1. Resembling ashes (especially in colour); (of a person’s complexion) unusually pale as a result of strong emotion, illness, etc.

   Synonyms: ashen, cineraceous, cinereous

   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, London: Richard Field^[1]

     Still is he sullein, still he lowres and frets,

     Twixt crimson shame, and anger ashie pale,

   • 1636, Thomas Heywood, Loves Maistresse: or, The Queens Masque, London: John Crowch, Act IV, Scene 1,^[2]

     Tell her that sicknesse, with her ashie hand,

     Hath swept away the beauty from my cheekes,

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 11, p. 126,^[3]

     Again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of colour to the ashy cheeks, and the regular breathing of healthy sleep.

   • 1968, Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea, Chapter 7, p. 123,^[4]

     Beyond that black clot the sea lay, pale with last ashy gleam of day.

2. Comprising, containing, or covered with ash.

   Synonym: cinereous

   • 1591, Edmund Spenser, “Ruines of Rome” in Complaints, London: William Ponsonby,^[5]

     Ye heauenly spirites, whose ashie cinders lie

     Vnder deep ruines, with huge walls opprest,

   • 1720, Alexander Pope (translator), The Iliad: of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 6, Book 23, p. 75,^[6]

     […] where yet the Embers glow,

     Wide o’er the Pyle the sable Wine they throw,

     And deep subsides the ashy Heap below.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, London: Chapman and Hall, Volume 3, Chapter 10, p. 151,^[7]

     […] I saw her sitting on the hearth in a ragged chair, close before, and lost in the contemplation of, the ashy fire.

   • 1991, Edwidge Danticat, “A Wall of Fire Rising” in Krik? Krak! New York: Soho Press, 1995,^[8]

     He lit the paper until it burned to an ashy film.

3. (African-American Vernacular) Having dry or dead skin (therefore discolored).
   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, 2002, Chapter 4, p. 22,^[9]

     It was summer and his pants were short, so the pickle juice made clean streams down his ashy legs […]

   • 2015, Paul Beatty, The Sellout, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 11, p. 159,^[10]

     […] a skinny chalk-colored girl raised a hand so disgustingly ashy, so white and dry-skinned, that it could only be black.

Derived terms

• ashily
• ashiness

Translations

Anagrams

• Hays, SYHA, Shay, hays, shay, yahs

English

Alternative forms

• gray (often used in the US)

Etymology

From Middle English grey, from Old English gr??, from Proto-Germanic *gr?waz (compare Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár), from Proto-Indo-European *??reh?- (“to green, to grow”) (compare Latin r?vus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic ???? (z?rj?, “to see, to glance”), Russian ????? (zret?, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”)).

Adjective

grey (comparative greyer or more grey, superlative greyest or most grey)

1. Britain and Commonwealth of Nations standard spelling of gray.

   • These grey and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.

2. (South Africa, slang) Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

grey (third-person singular simple present greys, present participle greying, simple past and past participle greyed)

1. Britain and Commonwealth of Nations standard spelling of gray.
   • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18, ^[1]

     Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.

Noun

grey (plural greys)

1. Britain and Commonwealth of Nations standard spelling of gray.
   • 1833, Sporting Magazine (volume 6, page 400)

     Pioneer seemed now to have the game in his own hands; but the Captain, by taking two desperate leaps, cut off a corner, by which he regained the ground he had lost by the fall, and was up with the grey the remainder of the chase.

Translations

See also

• greys

References

Anagrams

• -ergy, gyre

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse grey, from Proto-Germanic *grawj?, cognate with Faroese groyggj.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /krei?/
• Rhymes: -ei?

Noun

grey n (genitive singular greys, nominative plural grey)

1. (archaic) bitch (female dog)
2. wretch, pitiful person

3. indefinite accusative singular of grey
4. indefinite nominative plural of grey
5. indefinite accusative plural of grey

Declension

Middle English

Alternative forms

• grei, gray, grai, greye, gry, græi, gro, gra, gre?e, grei?e

Etymology

From Old English gr??, from Proto-Germanic *gr?waz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?r?i?/
• Rhymes: -?i?

Adjective

grey (plural and weak singular greye)

1. grey, dull, drab (in color)
2. glinting, glistening

Descendants

• English: gray, grey
• Scots: gray
• Yola: gry

References

• “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.

Noun

grey

1. grey (colour)
2. Fur of the grey squirrel
3. grey clothes
4. grey textiles
5. An elderly man
6. A badger

Descendants

• English: gray, grey
• Scots: gray
• Yola: gry

References

• “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
• “grei, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
• “grei, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.

See also

Portuguese

Noun

grey m (plural greys)

1. Alternative form of gray (race of extraterrestrials)

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin grege, singular ablative of grex, from Proto-Indo-European *h?ger- (“to assemble, gather together”). Doublet of grupo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???ei/, [???ei?]

Noun

grey f (plural greyes)

1. (obsolete, poetic) flock, herd

   Synonyms: rebaño, rehala

2. (religion) flock (people served by a pastor, priest, etc., also all believers in a church or religion)

   Synonyms: rebaño, feligresía, congregación, iglesia

Derived terms

• gregario
• agregar

Related terms

• oveja
• cabra

See also

• (animals): ganado, hato, parvada, manada, jauría, cardumen, enjambre