Etymograph

English

green

Green comes from Old English grēne, from Proto-Germanic *grōniz, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- ‘to grow’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰreh₁-1‘to grow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gróh₁nis1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*grōniz1reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*grōnī1reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150grēne1
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500grene1
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606green1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English green
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “to look so green and pale”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰreh₁-Wiktionary, English green‘to grow’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gróh₁nisWiktionary, English greenreconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*grōnizWiktionary, English greenreconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*grōnīWiktionary, English greenreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150grēneWiktionary, English green
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500greneWiktionary, English green
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1606greenWiktionary, English green. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1606, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Macbeth: “to look so green and pale”

The story

The sense of obscene, pornographic, or sexual in the Philippines is a semantic loan from Spanish verde. In other varieties of English, blue is the color instead associated with obscenity or pornography.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- ‘to grow’

grow, grass, herb, arbor, gourmet, groom, graze, yerba, ambergris, greedily, 18 more

Another origin of green

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*grōnijōną‘to become green’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*grōnijan‘to make green, paint green’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150grēnian‘to become green, flourish’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500grenen
  5. Englishtodaygreen

Today it means

noun The color of grass and leaves; a primary additive color midway between yellow and blue which is evoked by light between roughly 495–570 nm.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “green”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *gʰreh₁- / green

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