Etymograph

English

Grieve

Grieve comes from Middle English greyve ‘steward, bailiff, principal officer’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *garāfijō ‘count’.

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*garāfijō‘count’reconstructed
  2. Old Saxonc. 800–1200grāvio
  3. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600grēve
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350greifi
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500greyve‘steward, bailiff, principal officer’
  6. EnglishtodayGrieve

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*garāfijō‘count’reconstructed
  2. Old Saxonc. 800–1200grāvio
  3. Middle Low Germanc. 1200–1600grēve
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350greifi
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500greyve‘steward, bailiff, principal officer’
  6. EnglishtodayGrieve

The story

Also sometimes a variant of Grave.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁p- ‘to seize, pluck’

rape, rapid, repent, rapture, raptor, ravine, rapt, rapacious, surreptitious, 13 more

through Proto-West Germanic *ga- ‘used as an intensifier for verbs, indicating…’

graff, limbed

through Proto-West Germanic *garāfijō ‘count’

graf, reeve, 1 more

through Middle Low German grēve

greaves, 1 more

through Old Norse greifi

grave, 2 more

Today it means

name A surname.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *garāfijō / Grieve

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