Meaning

verb express greetings upon meeting someone

verb send greetings to

verb react to in a certain way

originFrom a blend of two Old English verbs, grētan, grǣtan (itself from Proto-West Germanic *grātan); and of Old English grēotan (itself from *greutan), both meaning "to weep, lament". Possibly reinforced in Northern England and Scotland by Old Norse gráta, whence also Danish græde, Norwegian gråte, Swedish gråta, all meaning "to cry, to weep".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0