[Vocabulary] "grip" / "grippe"/ "la grippe"

[David Czech]

Hello,

I would like to ask a question about the word „grip“ / „grippe“ / „la grippe“ (= influenza).

According to The Collins English Dictionary (2003; all my references to all dictionaries are actually taken from The Free Dictionary – based on Collins etc.), the word is „a former name“ for influenza. In The Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary (2010) one can find a stylistic classification „older use“. The Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health (2003) calls it just a „popular term for influenza“ (not an old-fashioned one).

I came across the word in one short story by I. B. Singer (and I, therefore, guessed at first it would be a loanword from German – die Grippe – via Yiddish, of which German is a substantial component; the word has been, however, taken over from Old French, as I come to know now in the dictionaries).

And I would like to ask native speakers / English teachers a question: is the word still widely in use? Would you use it? Or is it better to avoid it?

Thanks

David

 

[MikeNewYork]

Hello,

I would like to ask a question about the word „grip“ / „grippe“ / „la grippe“ (= influenza).

According to The Collins English Dictionary (2003; all my references to all dictionaries are actually taken from The Free Dictionary – based on Collins etc.), the word is „a former name“ for influenza. In The Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary (2010) one can find a stylistic classification „older use“. The Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health (2003) calls it just a „popular term for influenza“ (not an old-fashioned one).

I came across the word in one short story by I. B. Singer (and I, therefore, guessed at first it would be a loanword from German – die Grippe – via Yiddish, of which German is a substantial component; the word has been, however, taken over from Old French, as I come to know now in the dictionaries).

And I would like to ask native speakers / English teachers a question: is the word still widely in use? Would you use it? Or is it better to avoid it?

Thanks

David

The last time I heard this word was in a song from Guys and Dolls. I would avoid it in modern English.

 

[Tdol]

I've heard it in French, but never in English. I must have missed Guys and Dolls.

 

[emsr2d2]

I must have missed Guys and Dolls.

That's a situation I wouldn't recommend rectifying.

 

[bhaisahab]

I've never heard it in English either.

 

[MikeNewYork]

That's a situation I wouldn't recommend rectifying.

It was a very good musical.

 

[riquecohen]

I've never heard it in English either.

My father, New York-born in 1898, used it all the time. I've never heard anyone else use the word in English.

 

[probus]

I've never heard it in English either.

My father, New York-born in 1898, used it all the time. I've never heard anyone else use the word in English.

I have seen it in written English from the 1920s and before, spelled grippe. It was a synonym for cold or flu. And I think my grandmother used it too. But I consider it to have fallen out of use and would avoid it.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I have seen it in written English from the 1920s and before, spelled grippe. It was a synonym for cold or flu. And I think my grandmother used it too. But I consider it to have fallen out of use and would avoid it.

Mandy Moore singing Adelaide's Lament from Guys and Dolls.

See here: Mandy Moore - Adelaides Lament - YouTube

 

[BobK]

I've heard it in French, but never in English. I must have missed Guys and Dolls.

'A person can develop a cold' - Adelaide.

b

PS Posted before I saw #-1. I'm leaving it because of riquecohen's point: she says /pɔɪsən/. It's set in New York.

b