The verb greissel, also spelled greisle, means to “disgust,” “sicken” or “irritate,” as in That greissels me or I stayed greisseled about that for a long time. Greissel comes from a family of German words that describe things that are repellent, like gruselig, “creepy,” and grässlich, “horrible,” which are distantly related to such English words as gruesome and grisly. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “To Greissel Someone”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Well, hi there. This is Barbara Rice.
Hi, Barbara. Where are you calling from?
Huntsville, Alabama.
What’s on your mind, Barbara?
The word greisel. I don’t know how you spell it. I heard my grandmother use it, and she was born in 1886, and her father was born in 1824. So this word might go back a ways. And I think it originated, our usage of it, in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, very south-central county of Pennsylvania. And there was a German background. They were farmers, if that gives you any hints.
It does.
How would you use it?
The word is greisel?
Greisel.
You would use greisel if you were upset about something and it doesn’t sit well with you. And I have a little example to demonstrate because there’s some hurt in there too. Suppose I and a friend are both expectant mothers, and I’ve picked out the perfect name for our child, and I tell her that name, and she thinks that’s a wonderful name. Lo and behold, her baby is born first, and she uses that name for her baby. That would greisel me.
Oh.
Oh, yeah, definitely.
Me too.
I’m greiseled already just thinking about it, and it’s an imaginary circumstance. This has not happened. This is entirely fictitious.
Oh, good.
But you understand the hurt, and you can’t fix it. You’re going to have to live with it. And I’d stay greiseled a long time about that one.
I would, too.
I would just call that kid. I would just say, hey, kid, never use their name.
Oh yeah, Barbara, you’ve laid it out really well. Yeah, greisel, greisel, greisel. So maybe pennsylvania Pennsylvania is the clue here, right? Martha and the Pennsylvania German.
It sure is. Yes, it does go back to German. Greisel spelled G-R-E-I-S-S-E-L or sometimes it’s spelled G-R-E-I-S-L-E. It’s one of those words that comes from a family of German words that refer to things that are disgusting or irritating or otherwise creepy. And they’re actually distantly related to English words like gruesome and grisly, this whole linguistic family.
So you have in German, you have gruselig, which means creepy, or kresslich, which means horrible or frightful. As you imagined, it found its way into dialectal English in Pennsylvania as grisel. And it’s such a wonderfully evocative word. I mean, your example is perfect, really. It grisels me. It’s something that really irritates you and sticks around for a long time. It wants to make you kotze, which is Pennsylvania German for vomit.
Oh, I didn’t hear that one.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s all that common now, but as you suggest, it’s a really useful term, huh?
Yes, and you’ve really got to be upset about something for it to grifle you, and if it grifles you, it doesn’t go away quickly. It’s like it rubs you the wrong way, but it rubs you really hard the wrong way.
Yes, and there isn’t much you can do to fix it. That’s the other little part of it. You’re going to have to live with it.
Well, Barbara, we appreciate your sharing this with the larger community because I bet a lot of people don’t know this term. It’s pretty limited to that part of the country. But it’s so expressive.
It really is.
It’s a fading term, but it’s wonderful to be reminded of it and of how much more widespread it used to be. So thanks, Barbara.
You’re most welcome. My pleasure.
Bye-bye.
Bye now.
Bye-bye.
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