Greyhound

How to spell greyhound

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce greyhound

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does greyhound mean?

1. nounA tall, slender, smooth-coated dog bred for speed, used in racing and coursing.

Greyhound in a sentence

• The retired racing greyhound now sleeps most of the afternoon on the sofa.

• A greyhound can reach remarkable speeds over a short distance.

Where does greyhound come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Greyhound comes from the Old English grighund, a compound whose second part, hund, simply meant 'dog' (the ancestor of modern 'hound'). The first part is the real surprise: despite how it looks, it has nothing to do with the colour grey, since greyhounds come in many colours. Scholars link it instead to an Old Norse word grey, meaning a bitch or female dog, so the name may once have meant something close to 'dog-hound'. The breed itself is ancient, prized for speed in coursing and hunting, and the word is recorded in English from before the year 1000. The misleading 'grey' spelling has stuck firmly, which is why the word keeps its 'e' even in American English, where the colour is usually spelled 'gray'.

How the word is built

• grey- (from an old root for 'bitch' or female dog, unrelated to the colour)
• hound (dog, hunting dog)