Grassy means having the fresh green note of cut lawn. A grassy note, grassy olive oil, grassy and fresh.
In tasting it describes a green freshness found in new olive oil, young white wine and green tea, and it is a compliment — the compound responsible, cis-3-hexenal, is literally the smell of cut grass. Of a place it simply means covered in grass: a grassy bank. Note that grassy in olive oil indicates early-harvest fruit.
1adjectivegrassyHaving the fresh green note of cut lawn.
“This white wine has a fresh, grassy flavour that goes well with goat's cheese.”
2adjectivecoveredCovered in grass.
“We had our picnic on a grassy slope overlooking the lake.”
grassy is a quality of green freshness.
Old English graesig is grass plus -y. Dutch grazig and German grasig are built identically, and grass comes from the same root as grow and green.
Proto-Germanic
*grasagrōniz
Proto-West Germanic
*grasagrōnī
Old English
*græsiġ
Middle English
grasy
English, today
grassy
From Middle English grasy, from Old English græsiġ, gærsiġ, from Proto-West Germanic grasagrōnī, from Proto-Germanic grasagrōniz, equivalent to grass + -y. Compare stq gäärsich (“grassy”), Dutch grazig (“grassy”), German grasig (“grassy”), Icelandic grösugur (“grassy”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA