greek

See also: Greek

English

Etymology

Probably from Greek (“unintelligible speech or text”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹiːk/
• Rhymes: -iːk

Noun

greek (plural greeks)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Greek (“nonsense writing or talk; gibberish”).
2. Alternative letter-case form of Greek (“anal sex”).

Verb

greek (third-person singular simple present greeks, present participle greeking, simple past and past participle greeked)

1. (transitive, computing) To display a placeholder (instead of text), especially to optimize speed in displaying text that would be too small to read.
   • 1991, Ronnie Shushan, Don Wright, Desktop Publishing by Design, 2nd edition, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press, →OCLC:

     You can specify the type size below which text will be greeked in the Preferences dialog box. Designers often prefer to use greeked text in rough layouts because it helps the client focus on the design rather than on the words.

   • 2002, Deke McClelland, “The Interface”, in Real World Adobe Illustrator 10, Berkeley, Calif.: Peachpit Press, →ISBN, pages 46–47:

     If text gets smaller than this value, [Adobe] Illustrator shows the text blocks as gray bars, an operation called greeking. Both type size and view size figure into the equation, so that 6-point type greeks at 100-percent view size and 12-point type greeks at 50 percent. Greeking speeds the screen display because gray bars are easier to draw than individual characters.

2. (transitive, computing) To fill a template with nonsense text (particularly the Lorem ipsum), so that form can be focused on instead of content.
3. (transitive) To obscure a corporate logo that has not been permitted for use in a production.

Derived terms

• greeking (noun)

Related terms

• it's all Greek to me

Anagrams

• Gerke