greeting

[gree-ting] /ˈgri tɪŋ/
noun
1.
the act or words of a person who greets.
2.
a friendly message from someone who is absent:
a greeting from a friend in another country.
3.
greetings, an expression of friendly or respectful regard:
Send my greetings to your family.
Origin
before 900; Middle English, Old English gretinge. See greet1, -ing1
Related forms
greetingless, adjective

greet1

[greet] /grit/
verb (used with object)
1.
to address with some form of salutation; welcome.
2.
to meet or receive:
to be greeted by cheering crowds; to greet a proposal with boos and hisses.
3.
to manifest itself to:
Music greeted his ear as he entered the salon.
verb (used without object)
4.
Obsolete. to give salutations on meeting.
Origin
before 900; Middle English greten, Old English grētan; cognate with German grüssen
Related forms
greeter, noun
Synonyms
1. hail, accost.

greet2

[greet] /grit/
verb (used without object)
1.
to grieve; lament; cry.
verb (used with object)
2.
to lament; bewail.
Origin
before 900; Middle English grete, Old English grǣtan; cognate with ON grāta, Gothic gretan
Examples from the web for greeting
  • And one of those samples came from a left hand, which didn't participate in any of the meeting or greeting.
  • He never showed any aggression towards a human, and his favorite greeting for strangers was a lick in the face.
  • Meeting them in the street, she never raised her head to receive their greeting.
  • She spoke to the heroes in greeting and bade them stay in peace for as long as they would.
  • Amory called a greeting and descending a flight of wooden steps approached the car.
  • Maoris say hello by pressing their noses together in a greeting called hongi.
  • Hierarchical in all things, hyena etiquette usually requires the submissive animal to initiate the greeting.
  • Blast a friend with an e-greeting of nature's fireworks.
  • Dress up your e-greeting with an image of freshly washed party dresses.
  • Salute a friend with an e-greeting of a floral flag.
British Dictionary definitions for greeting

greeting

/ˈɡriːtɪŋ/
noun
1.
the act or an instance of welcoming or saluting on meeting
2.
(often pl)
  1. an expression of friendly salutation
  2. (as modifier): a greetings card

greet1

/ɡriːt/
verb (transitive)
1.
to meet or receive with expressions of gladness or welcome
2.
to send a message of friendship to
3.
to receive in a specified manner: her remarks were greeted by silence
4.
to become apparent to: the smell of bread greeted him
Word Origin
Old English grētan; related to Old High German gruozzen to address

greet2

/ɡriːt/
verb
1.
(intransitive) to weep; lament
noun
2.
weeping; lamentation
Word Origin
from Old English grētan, northern dialect variant of grætan; compare Old Norse grāta, Middle High German grazen
Word Origin and History for greeting
n.

Old English greting "salutation," verbal noun from gretan (see greet). Related: Greetings. First record of greeting card is from 1876.

greet

v.

Old English gretan "to come in contact with" (in sense of "attack, accost" as well as "salute, welcome," and "touch, take hold of, handle"), from West Germanic *grotjan (cf. Old Saxon grotian, Old Frisian greta, Dutch groeten, Old High German gruozen, German grüßen "to salute, greet"), perhaps originally "to resound" (via notion of "cause to speak"), causative of Proto-Germanic *grætanan, root of Old English grætan (Anglian gretan) "weep, bewail," from PIE *gher- "to call out." Greet still can mean "cry, weep" in Scottish & northern England dialect, though this might be from a different root. Grætan is probably also the source of the second element in regret. Related: Greeted; greeting.