φαιός

Of unclear origin. The word has been compared with Latvian gaišs (“light, bright”) and Lithuanian gai̇̃sas (“beam of light, redness in the sky”) and reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰaiso- (“bright, shining”), though there are formal issues with this. Other reconstructions which have been proposed are *φαιϝός (*phaiwós) and *φαισϝός (*phaiswós).^[1]

φαιός • (phaiós) m (feminine φαιᾱ́, neuter φαιόν); first/second declension

1. grey, of any colour mixed of black and white

   Synonyms: κιλλός (killós), πολιός (poliós)

2. harsh (of sound)

• Greek: φαιός (faiós)
• → Translingual: phaeo-

• “φαιός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “φαιός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• φαιός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette

From Ancient Greek φαιός (phaiós).

• IPA^(key): /feˈos/
• Hyphenation: φαι‧ός

φαιός • (faiós) m (feminine φαιά, neuter φαιό)

1. (formal, of colours and hues) dull (having no particular luster or brightness)
2. (formal, by extension) grey, ashy (having a color somewhere between white and black)
   • 1982, “Ερωτικό (Με μια πιρόγα) [Love Song (In A Pirogue)]”, in Alkis Alkaios (lyrics), Thanos Mikroutsikos (music), Εμπάργκο [Embargo], performed by Manolis Mitsias:

     Εδώ είναι Αττική, φαιό νταμάρι.

     Edó eínai Attikí, faió ntamári.

     This is Attica, a dull grey quarry.

• (dull): μουντός (mountós)
• (grey, ashy): γκρίζος (gkrízos), γκρι (gkri), σταχτής (stachtís)

• (antonym(s) of “dull”): ανοιχτόχρωμος (anoichtóchromos, “lightly-coloured, light”)