Mundane Java has two types of character-type literals: character literals, enclosed in single-quotes, and string literals, enclosed in double-quotes.

1/* Character literal, enclosed in single-quotes */
2char ch = 'c';
3/* String literal, enclosed in double-quotes */
4String s = "This is a string.";

One of the first things not backwards-compatible with Java that a new Groovy user may notice is that single-quotes now delimit strings as well.

Gr- — (Javanese) Agglunative prefix, typically indicating expectation of a painful experience, often due to lack of forethought or impropper planning.

Example constructs include:

• Groovy — Adjective. Characterised by a large number of hacks attempting to make things better, but which really only increase the number of problems by an order of magnitude. “That’s some groovy code you’ve got there. I especially like how it uses the query parameters to dynamically select the class and static method to execute.”

• Grail(s) — Verb (almost always found in the singular present). To inflict suffering and confusion by means of unnecessary complexity, self contradiction, and annoying surprises separated by excrutiating waits. “It really grails me how this ‘convention over configuration’ framework requires three multi-thousand-line configuration files to run.”

• Gradle — Noun. An obstensibly comfortable, metaphorical location in which something is cradled before finally succumbing to death. “After having been in gradle for a few months, we found that the code had become impossible to update, due to library version conflicts.”