Etymology From Middle English gris, from Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”). Compare Old Dutch gristo, gristio (“boar, wild boar”).
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Scotland A pig, especially a young pig, or its meat; sometimes specifically, a breed of pig or boar native to north Britain, now extinct.
This fine Smooth bawson cub, the young grice of a gray1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:
Further, there was of meats wheat bread, main-bread and ginge-bread with fleshes, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, venison, goose, grice, capon, coney, cran, swan, partridge, plover, duck, drake, brissel-cock and pawnies, black-cock and muir-fowl, cappercaillies;1728, Robert Lindsay, The history of Scotland, from 21 February, 1436. to March, 1565: in which are contained accounts of many remarkable passages altogether differing from our other historians, and many facts are related, either concealed by some, or omitted by others, Mr. Baskett and Company, page 146:
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Through a door to one of the galleries, left half open on purpose I was attracted to a dainty hot supper, consisting of stewed mushrooms and the fat paps and ears of very young pigs, or, as they call them, gricen.1789, William Thomson, Mammuth: or, human nature displayed on a grand scale: in a tour with the tinkers, into the inland parts of Africa. By the man in the moon. In two volumes. publ. G. and T. Wilkie, pg.105
A model of the grice - which was the size of a large dog and had tusks - has been created after work by researchers and a taxidermist.2006 November 17, “Extinct island pig spotted again”, in BBC News:
Etymology Unknown. Possibly from Richard Grice, the first champion trainspotterhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rdU1xtIWJz0C&q=grice+trainspotter&dq=grice+trainspotter&hl=en&sa=X&ei=afhsT5ChFe-R0QWF8K3HBg&redir_esc=y. Alternatively perhaps a humorous representation of an upper-class pronunciation of grouser (“grouse-shooter”)https://web.archive.org/web/20120313071637/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gricer. In either case the derivation could be direct or a back-formation from gricer.
Many people joined the railways because the 'carrot' of a staff pass was a considerable attraction, whether for family travel or to grice at extremely low cost.1999 March 29, Tony Polson, “Re: Do all UK rail staff get free unlimited Eurostar travel?”, in uk.railway (Usenet):
We can also roganise photo charters, large group footplate courses and gricing holidays [...]2005 August, The Railway Magazine, volume 151, number 1252, IPC Business Press, page 55:
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Trainspotters may be mocked by the outside world, but they don't take criticism lying down: the language of gricing is notable for its acidic descriptions of outsiders.2010, Adam Jacot de Boinod, “Gricer's Daughter”, in I Never Knew There Was a Word For It, →ISBN: