Gretna Green

PRONUNCIATION: (GRET-nuh green)

MEANING:
noun:
1. A place where couples elope to to get married.
2. Such a wedding.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Gretna Green, a village in Scotland on the English border. English couples who had not reached the age of majority eloped to Gretna Green where such a wedding was permitted. A wedding was typically performed by a blacksmith in his shop. Earliest documented use: 1813.
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GRETNA GREED - a fishhouse just ouside the Union County line in Mississippi where calculating young ladies can marry rich old men without being designated "gold diggers".