Precisely. For example, horses, Mercedeses, and Poupons can be grey, but Corollas and Dells can only be gray. Likewise, working class hair can gray, but upper-class hair may grey instead.
[in 1893] “Many correspondents said that they used the two forms with a difference of meaning or application: the distinction most generally recognized being that grey denotes a more delicate or a lighter tint than gray. Others considered the difference to be that gray is a ‘warmer’ colour, or that it has a mixture of red or brown”
I suspect those correspondents would be optimistic if they expected to be reliably understood in the ways they describe...
It’s part of a discussion appended to the etymology section in the word’s entry in the OED. It concludes: “As the word is both etymologically and phonetically one, it is undesirable to treat its graphic forms as differing in signification.”
with both parts: I tend to write grey for light and cool and gray for dark and warm, but they're two spellings of the same word denoting exactly the same range of colors.
I see "grey" used most often in the usernames of wiccan-compliant types to imply the wisdom associated with experience, which is usually attributed to having earned gray/grey hair.
I tend towards the "gray" spelling now because of certain early web browsers that implemented HTML's 16 named colors by stemming from the first three letters of each value; thus "grey" would be misinterpreted as "green".
I worked on a project that dealt with colour a lot. It had been written by Australians, worked on for several years by Americans, and then they hired me (a Canadian) to work on it. The correct spelling of that colour (or indeed, the word "colour") was a constant source of debugging fun.
There are far more compound words with gray, from graybeard to grayfish (as opposed to crayfish), to gray wolf. I'm sure that means something. Both gray and grey seem to come from Old English. Does the OED differentiate them further back - from different languages? Now I'm curious.
I'll see yer grayfish and raise you a great grey shrike (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greatgreyshrike/index.aspx) (there's a lesser grey shrike too, but the RSPB doesn't have an entry for it), a grey heron (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greyheron/index.aspx), a grey partridge (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greypartridge/index.aspx), a grey phalarope (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greyphalarope/index.aspx), a grey plover (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greyplover/index.aspx) and a grey wagtail (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greywagtail/index.aspx). Then I'll annoy you even more by mentioning the greylag goose (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greylaggoose/index.aspx). :P
Obnoxiousness aside, i would use "greybeard" rather than "graybeard". Not sure if that's a personal choice or a reflection of the greater use of "grey" over here, and the greater use of "gray" over there...
'Gray' is a neutral color. 'Grey' to me has associations with yellowness and greasiness, very negative associations. It's also associated with bergamot for obvious reasons.
I understand that they are actually supposed to be synonyms, but this is happening on some other level.
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Spalding was Gray.
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(scnr)
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Concur
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[in 1893] “Many correspondents said that they used the two forms with a difference of meaning or application: the distinction most generally recognized being that grey denotes a more delicate or a lighter tint than gray. Others considered the difference to be that gray is a ‘warmer’ colour, or that it has a mixture of red or brown”
I suspect those correspondents would be optimistic if they expected to be reliably understood in the ways they describe...
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I have to agree
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Only by the Greys.
Which, given current US Immigration policy, probably explains our spelling preference! Fnarr Fnarr.
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But I can explain how.
Re: But I can explain how.
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Phonological history of English low back vowels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels).
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I understand that they are actually supposed to be synonyms, but this is happening on some other level.
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