Greek

Greek, grēk, adj. Grecian.—n. a Grecian: the language of Greece: (B.) a Greek by race, or more frequently a Gentile as opposed to a Jew, a Hellenising Jew, a Jew naturalised in foreign countries: a cunning rogue, a merry fellow: any language of which one is ignorant, jargon, anything unintelligible.—adj. Greek′ish.—Greek architecture, the orders developed in ancient Greece (Corinthian, Doric, Ionic); Greek Church, the church of those Christians who follow the ancient rite of the East and accept the first seven councils, rejecting all later innovations and papal supremacy—it is called Orthodox by reason of its vindications of dogma, and Eastern from its geographical distribution; Greek cross (see Cross); Greek fire, a composition, burning either in or under water, supposed to have been made of asphalt, nitre, and sulphur, long kept secret by the Greeks of the Byzantine empire for their exclusive use in war; Greek gift, a treacherous gift (from Virgil's Æneid, ii. 49).—At the Greek calends, never, the Greeks having no calends.