"zu greifen" may best translate to "to grip", but "grip" has different mental connotations in English (it refers to mental stability, not intellectual insight).

The best dual purpose translation of "zu greifen"/"gripe" (German/Scandinavian) meaning "zu begreifen"/"begripe"/"understand" would be "to grasp", which covers both physically grabbing into something and also to understand it intellectually.

All these words stem back to the Proto-Indo-European gʰrebʰ, which more or less completes the circle back to "grep".