Wednesday, April 8, 2015

A-to-Z Challenge: G

Today’s etymology (and hey, we made it through a week!) is glare, and as usual, I was entirely too amused by it.


Glare showed up in the late thirteenth century meaning shine brightly. It’s related to or descended from the Middle Low German glaren, to gleam, and get this, it’s related to glass. I’m not making that up. There’s a thing in linguistics called rhotacization where people pronounce the s/z sound as r, so glaren actually came from the Proto Germanic glasem, the word for glass. You can go even further back to Proto Indo European, where it’s ghel, which also gave us gold and yellow.

TL;DR: Glass gleams which is why glass is glass and gleam is gleam.

Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Dictionary.com
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Encyclopaedia Britannica
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16 comments:

  1. AnonymousApril 8, 2015 at 4:59 AM

    This broke my head, I'm sure.

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  2. Tasha Duncan-DrakeApril 8, 2015 at 7:33 AM

    I have never heard of rhotacization - I shall try and remember it, but given I can barely spell it when looking at it, I suspect I shall fail :).
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  3. Alex J. CavanaughApril 8, 2015 at 7:48 AM

    Car windows do give off a glare when the sun hits them just right.

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  4. Elizabeth SeckmanApril 8, 2015 at 9:33 AM

    I would never have guessed they were connected. That's some fun trivia knowledge!

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  5. Elizabeth SeckmanApril 8, 2015 at 9:33 AM

    I would never have guessed they were connected. That's some fun trivia knowledge!

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  6. UnknownApril 8, 2015 at 10:46 AM

    Never knew! Thanks for sharing. Would definitely be back for more.
    stopping by from AtoZChallenge
    kaysfittings0211.blogspot.com

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  7. Chrys FeyApril 8, 2015 at 11:05 AM

    I didn't know that. Your posts are sure educating me on words. :)

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  8. Kate LarkindaleApril 8, 2015 at 2:15 PM

    That actually makes sense….

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  9. Andrew LeonApril 8, 2015 at 2:22 PM

    Is that the word for all of the softening of words or just that particular thing?

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  10. bettyApril 8, 2015 at 4:52 PM

    Interesting, and I'm also thinking glare means a mean stare.

    betty

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  11. William KendallApril 8, 2015 at 5:09 PM

    I guess shining brightly can still apply to a mean glare directed, oh... at idiot ex-brothers-in-law.

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  12. Susan Gourley/KelleyApril 8, 2015 at 5:31 PM

    I wonder how we came to call a harsh stare a glare?

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  13. Liz BlockerApril 8, 2015 at 7:57 PM

    See??? Now THIS one makes sense. So nice when that happens.

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  14. AnonymousApril 8, 2015 at 9:22 PM

    Stopping by during the #Challenge to read your blog. One of my favorite words came to mind when I read this post...glance. Maybe next year you'll use it. Appreciate the hard work it takes to make April happen. Fun though, isn't it!

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  15. Liz A.April 8, 2015 at 10:02 PM

    And gold gleams, too. At least when it's all nice and shiny.

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  16. Nick WilfordApril 9, 2015 at 1:12 AM

    Don't forget glint. And glisten. And glitter. I wonder why the s ended up being pronounced as r though.

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Please validate me.

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