Chapter Grecian Stairs to Green Goose of G by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

668.
   A very similar projectile was used by the Federals in the great American contest, especially at the seige of Charleston.

Greek Gift (A). A treacherous gift. The reference is to the Wooden Horse said to be a gift or offering to the gods for a safe return from Troy, but in reality a ruse for the destruction of the city. (See Fatal Gifts.)

"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."
Virgil: Æneid, ii. 49.

Greek Life A sound mind in a sound body. "Mens sana in corpore sano."

"This healthy life, which was the Greek life, came from keeping the body in good tune." - Daily Telegraph.

Greek Trust No trust at all. "Græca fides" was with the Romans no faith at all. A Greek, in English slang, means a cheat or sharper, and Greek bonds are sadly in character with Græca fides.

Greeks in the New Testament mean Hellenists, or naturalised Jews in foreign countries; those not naturalised were called Aramæan Jews in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine.

"I will praise God that our family has ever remained Aramæan; not one among us has ever gone over to the Hellenists." - Eldad the Pilgrim, chap. ii.

Green Young, fresh, as green cheese, i.e. cream cheese, which is eaten fresh; green goose, a young or midsummer goose.

"If you would fat green geese, shut them up when they are about a month old." - Mortimer: Husbandry

   Immature in age or judgment, inexperienced, young.

"The text is old, the orator too green."
Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis, 806.

   Simple, raw, easily imposed upon; a greenhorn (q.v.).

"`He is so jolly green,' said Charley." - Dickens:
Oliver Twist. chap. ix.

   Green. The imperial green of France was the old Merovingian colour restored, and the golden bees are the ornaments found on the tomb of Childeric, the father of Clovis, in 1653. The imperial colour of the Aztecs was green; the national banner of Ireland is green; the field of many American flags is green, as their Union Jack, and the flags of the admiral, vice-admiral, rear-admiral, and commodore; and that of the Chinese militia is green.
   Green is held unlucky to particular clans and counties of Scotland. The Caithness men look on it as fatal, because their bands were clad in green at the battle of Flodden. It is disliked by all who bear the name of Ogilvy, and is especially unlucky to the Grahame clan. One day, an aged man of that name was thrown from his horse in a fox chase, and he accounted for the accident from his having a green lash to his riding whip. (See Kendal Green.)
    For its symbolism, etc., see under COLOURS.)
   N.B. There are 106 different shades of green. (See Kendal Green.)

Green Bag What's in the green bag? What charge is about to be preferred against me? The allusion is to the "Green Bag Inquiry" (q.v.).

Green Bird (The) told everything a person wished to know, and talked like an oracle. (Countess D'Aulnoy: Fair Star and Prince Chery.)

Green Cloth The Board of Green Cloth. A board connected with the royal household, having power to correct offenders within the verge of the palace and two hundred yards beyond the gates. A warrant from the board must be obtained before a servant of the palace can be arrested for debt. So called "because the committee sit with the steward of the household at a board covered with a green cloth in the counting-house, as recorders and witnesses to the truth." It existed in the reign of Henry I., and probably at a still earlier period.

Green Dogs Any extinct race, like that of the Dodo. Brederode said to Count Louis: "I would the whole race of bishops and cardinals was extinct, like that of green dogs." (Motley Dutch Republic, part ii. 5.)