Greasy

How to spell greasy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce greasy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does greasy mean?

1. adjectiveCoated with, full of, or resembling grease or oil.

Greasy in a sentence

• The mechanic wiped his greasy hands on an old rag.

• The diner served a greasy breakfast that left a film on the plate.

Where does greasy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Greasy is simply the noun grease with the adjective ending -y attached, and grease itself reaches back to Latin crassus, which meant 'thick', 'dense', or 'fat'. From that root the Romans formed a word for melted animal fat, which passed into Old French as graisse, and English borrowed it during the 1300s as 'grece' or 'grease'. By the late medieval period writers were tacking on -y to make the adjective, describing anything slick with fat or oil. The same crassus root survives in the English word 'crass', which originally meant thick or coarse before it came to mean tactlessly stupid. The spelling trap is the quiet middle: the single 's' often gets a soft buzz when spoken, tempting some writers toward a 'z', yet the standard spelling keeps the 's' it inherited from grease.

How the word is built

• grease (animal fat, oil)
• -y (adjective suffix: full of, covered in)