greyhound的词源

英文词源

greyhound

greyhound: [OE] Most greyhounds are not grey – and there is no etymological reason why they should be. For the element grey- in their name has no connection with the colour-term grey. It comes from an unrecorded Old English *grīeg ‘bitch’, a relative of Old Norse grøy ‘bitch’.

greyhound (n.)

Old English grighund (West Saxon), greghund (Anglian) "greyhound," probably from grig- "bitch," a word of unknown etymology, + hund "dog" (see hound (n.)). The first element in the name apparently has nothing to do with color, as most of the hounds are not gray, but the exact sense of it must have been early forgotten, as it has been long associated with the color in popular imagination. In some Middle English forms it appears to be conformed to Grew, an old word for "Greek" (from Old French Griu). The Old Norse form of the word is preserved in Hjalti's couplet that almost sparked war between pagans and Christians in early Iceland:

Vilkat goð geyja
grey þykkjumk Freyja

I will not blaspheme the gods,
but I think Freyja is a bitch

中文词源

greyhound：灵缇犬(一种善快跑的狗), 灰狗

从结构来看，一般人都会认为该谢是个复合词，由grey（灰色的）和hound（猎狗）二词合成。greyhound是一种身体细长而善跑的狗，汉语作“灵”，但多数的毛色并不是灰的。该词第一成分grey-和颜色词grey无甚联系，它在古英语作grig-．源自古斯堪的纳维亚语grey，意思是bitch（母狗）。这种狗之所以称greyhound并非因为它的毛色是灰的，而是因为人们常把它作为育种母狗来饲养。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：greyhound 词源，greyhound 含义。

greyhound：灵犭是，猎犬

来自古英语grighund.来自grig,母狗，拼写受grey 影响，-hund,狗，词源同hound.大多数这 种狗并非灰白色。