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Gregʹarines (3 syl.)

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In 1867 the women of Europe and America, from the thrones to the maid-servants, adopted the fashion of wearing a pad made of false hair behind their head, utterly destroying its natural proportions. The microscope showed that the hair employed for these “uglies” abounded in a pedicʹulous insect called a gregʹarine (or little herding animal), from the Latin grex (a herd). The nests on the filaments of hair resemble those of spiders and silkworms, and the “object” used to form one of the exhibits in microscópical soirées.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Green Sleeves and Pudding Pies
Greens of Constantinople (The)
Greenbacks
Greener
Greengage
Greenhorn (A)
Greenlander
Greenlandman’s Galley
Greenwich
Greenwich Barbers
Gregarines
Gregorian Calendar
Gregorian Chant
Gregorian Epoch
Gregorian Telescope
Gregorian Tree
Gregorian Water or Gringorian Water
Gregorian Year
Gregories
Gregory (A)
Gregory (St.)