grete

See also: Grete

Middle English

Alternative forms

• greet
• girt, gert (dialectal)

Etymology

From Old English grēat (“big”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡrɛːt/

Adjective

grete (comparative gretter or greter, superlative grettest or gretest)

1. great, massive, amazing
   • 1407, The Testimony of William Thorpe, pages 40–41:

     And I seide, “Ser, in his tyme maister Ioon Wiclef was holden of ful many men the grettis clerk that thei knewen lyuynge vpon erthe. And therwith he was named, as I gesse worthili, a passing reuli man and an innocent in al his lyuynge. And herfore grete men of kunnynge and other also drowen myche to him, and comownede ofte with him. And thei sauouriden so his loore that thei wroten it bisili and enforsiden hem to rulen hem theraftir […] ”

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• English: great, gert, girt, gurt (dialectal)
  • → Welsh: grêt
• Scots: great, greet, grete, greit, graat (Shetland)
• Yola: graat

References

• “grēt, adj. & adv. & n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡreː.te/

Verb

grēte

1. inflection of grētan:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. singular present/preterite subjunctive
   3. second-person singular preterite indicative

Portuguese

Verb

grete

1. inflection of gretar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative