82 TEESBALE PLACE-NAMES. 



Thistle Green, Green Pell End, Greenhills, Green Burn, Green 

 Gill ; Green Castle — on Eonian road. See Castle. 



Geeta. 



The derivation of this name is said to be still sub jtidice. Some 

 •will have it from the A.-S. gratan, to weep, lament, cry out, 

 in allusion to the wailing sound of its waters against the rock 

 boulders, and ea, running water, and would call it the wailing 

 water or stream. 



Others, as Dr. Whitaker (History of Eichmond), think that it 

 is not from the A.-S. griclan, {grcetan), strepere, but from the 

 Suio-Goth. greot, a rock, and ed, water — the rocky water. 



Icel. grjot; A.-S. greOt. 



^'' Gryt, lapis; Ant. griut, specially sandstone, from which 

 millstones are made. C. B. gmt^ and hence the Fr. gres, sand- 

 stone fit for flagging, and from this the English greeces, for the 

 steps of a stair. 



" Gryt, lapis, in Suio-Goth., means also any kind of stone, 

 and we have mill stone grit. Ihre goes on to say: " "When mill 

 stones are of a material particularly well adapted to the grind- 

 ing of fruits, they ivara af godt gryt, were of good grit ; a com- 

 mon metaphor used to indicate the good nature and quality of 

 anything. I honom dr ej godt gryt, in that man is no good grit."* 



The expressions ' he is of good grit,' and ' that is the real grit,' 

 &c., are therefore not Americanisms, but Suedo-Gothicisms cen- 

 turies old. 



* Ihre says further : " That the Germans called a stone groz, or a similar name, 

 Wachter has ingeniously conjectured from the German name for Margarita, merigrozza 

 or merigriez; the former of these occurs in the Harmonia of Tatian, c. 39, 8, the latter 

 in Gloss. Plorent. They properly mean sea-stone. 



Pliny, in Hist. Nat., lib. 9, 35, states that Margarita was a name of the Barbarians 

 for the unio or pearl, whence Wachter concluded that Margarita was none other than 

 the German merigriez.'' The passage in Pliny is—" Dos omnis in candore, in magni- 

 tudine, orbe, l83vore, pondere, baud promptis rebus, in tantum utnulli duo reperiantur 

 indiscreti : unde nomen unionum Eomanre scihcet imposuere deliciee. Nam id apud 

 GraacoB non est, ne apud Barbaros quidem inventores ejus aliud, quam Margaritse." 



Meregrot, in A.-S., is pearl. 



The name Margaret, then, means literally sea-stone, i.e. pearl, 



