grig

Meanings

Noun

• A dwarf.
• A cricket or grasshopper.
• A small or young eel.
• Specifically, the broad-nosed eel. See glut.
• Heath or heather.

Verb

• To irritate or annoy.

Origin

• The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig". The word is of uncertain origin, though various theories have been suggested, such as a corruption of "merry as a cricket" or "merry as a Greek", as in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: "Then she's a merry Greek indeed." Johnson suggested that the word originally meant "anything below the natural size" (compare Swedish krik and Scots crick).
• From Welsh grug, Cornish grig.