Grue

Pronunciation

• enPR: groÍžo, IPA: /ɡɹuː/
• Rhymes: -uː
• Homophones: grew

From Middle English gruen. Probably from Middle Low German gruwen or Middle Dutch gruwen (Dutch gruwen), both from Proto-Germanic *grūwijanan.

Full definition of grue

Verb

1. (intransitive, archaic) To be frightened; to shudder with fear.

Noun

1. A shiver, a shudder
• 1921, John Buchan, The Path of the King, chapter 9There was a sharp grue of ice in the air.
• 1964, Geoffrey Jenkins, A Grue of Ice (title)

Back-formation from {{3}}

Noun

1. Any byproduct of a gruesome event, i.e. gore, viscera, entrails, blood and guts.The butcher was covered in the accumulated grue of a hard day's workThere was grue everywhere after the accident
• 1958, Samuel Youd, writing as John Christopher, The Caves of Night'I've told you - it wasn't much. He tried to kiss me.' She smiled slightly. 'Just after he had shown me the family skeletons.'
  'What a lovely bit of grue!'
• 1996, Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=iaHQorgoqd4C&pg=PA39&lpg=PA39&sig=0unz5oiZA5IURViNe75MsU7vHG4Carrie is Cinderella in the body language of menstrual blood and raging hormones. King’s adolescent joy in grimaces and groans, the Mad magazine humor, and the staple of “grue” hardly need mentioning.
• 2002, Carole Nelson Douglas, Chapel Noir http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=ZZu4sl0P1EAC&pg=PA336&lpg=PA336&sig=dPR0ntE54xw-h3m6fByM0fgJiuc“... She is quite agreeable to gruesome ghost stories, but appalled by the lust for life.”
  “I admit that I am surprised by how well she handles sheer grue, better than I.”
• 2004, Talbot Mundy, Guns of the Gods http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=PUCcyz2L1iwC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&sig=REDDP_txW9FrUWEogxny6lZ4wUo“This is the grue,” said Dick, holding his lantern high.
  Its light fell on a circle of skeletons, all perfect, each with its head toward a brass bowl in the center.

Probably from gruesome; first used in Jack Vance's Dying Earth universe, but popularized by the text-based computer game (1980).

Noun

1. A fictional predator that dwells in the dark.
• 1981, Byte magazine (volume 6)I managed to get into the house through the front once, but I was plunged into darkness and eaten by a monster called a grue.
• 2009, "Jas", Hazadous Australian animals the GRUE.... your guide (on Internet newsgroup rec.travel.australia+nz)To find a grue, turn off the light at night, or go for a walk in a dark place (but carry a flashlight with you).
• 2004, "M.D. Dollahite", How would you imagine a grue? (on Internet newsgroup rec.games.int-fiction)Incidentally, the best official text description I know of is in Sorcerer, when you actually become a grue and visit a grue colony. IIRC, even that description is vague, but does cannonize that they are large four-legged reptiles.

greenblue. Coined by Nelson_Goodman to illustrate concepts in the philosophy of science.

Adjective

1. (philosophy) Of an object, green when first observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time.
• 1965, Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction and Forecast,The grue property is defined as: x is grue if and only if x is green and is observed before the year 2000, or x is blue and is not observed before the year 2000.
• 2007, Michael Clark, Paradoxes from A to Z‎The unexamined emeralds cannot be both green and grue, since if they are grue and unexamined they are blue.
2. (linguistics) Green or blue, as a translation from languages such as Welsh that do not distinguish between these hues.

Anagrams

• geru, regu, urge