grouse

grouse
\ \ English has two words grouse, neither of whose ancestries are adequately documented. It has been speculated that grouse the game-bird [16] originated as the plural of a now lost *grue, which may have come from the medieval Latin bird-name grūta, or from Welsh grugiar, a compound of grug ‘heath’ and iar ‘hen’. Grouse ‘complain’ [19] is first recorded in the poetry of Rudyard Kipling. It seems originally to have been pronounced to rhyme with moose, but in the 20th century has come into line phonetically with grouse the bird. It is not known where it came from.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Grouse — Male Sage Grouse Centrocercus urophasianus Scientific classification Kingdom: Anima …   Wikipedia

  • grouse — [ gruz ] n. f. • grous 1771; mot écossais ♦ Coq de bruyère d Écosse. ⇒ lagopède, tétras. ● grouse nom féminin (anglais grouse) Lagopède d Écosse. grouse n. f. Lagopède des îles britanniques (Lagopus scoticus). ⇒GROUSE, subst. fém. Oiseau trapu de …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Grouse — (grous), n. sing. & pl. [Prob. after the analogy of mouse, mice, fr. the earlier grice, OF. griesche meor hen: cf. F. piegri[ e]che shrike.] (Zo[ o]l.) Any of the numerous species of gallinaceous birds of the family {Tetraonid[ae]}, and subfamily …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • grouse — grouse1 [grous] n. pl. grouse [Early ModE < ?] any of a family (Tetraonidae) of gallinaceous game birds with a round, plump body, feathered legs, feather covered nostrils, and mottled feathers, as the ruffed grouse or sage grouse grouse2… …   English World dictionary

  • Grouse — Grouse, v. i. 1. To seek or shoot grouse. [1913 Webster] 2. To complain or grumble; as, employees grousing about their incompetent boss. [informal] [PJC] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • grouse — grouse·ber·ry; grouse; grouse·less; …   English syllables

  • grouse — Ⅰ. grouse [1] ► NOUN (pl. same) ▪ a medium sized game bird with a plump body and feathered legs. ORIGIN perhaps related to Latin gruta or to Old French grue crane . Ⅱ. grouse [2] ► VERB ▪ complain pettily; grumble …   English terms dictionary

  • Grouse — (Grousewild, spr. graus ), s. Schneehuhn …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Grouse — (engl., spr. graus), das Schottenhuhn (s. Schneehuhn) …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • grouse — grouse1 grouseless, adj. grouselike, adj. /grows/, n., pl. grouse, grouses. 1. any of numerous gallinaceous birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae. Cf. black grouse, capercaillie, ruffed grouse, spruce grouse …   Universalium

  • grouse — [[t]gra͟ʊs[/t]] grouses, grousing, groused (The form grouse is used as the plural for meaning 1.) 1) N COUNT: oft N n A grouse is a wild bird with a round body. Grouse are often shot for sport and can be eaten. The party had been to the grouse… …   English dictionary

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