glamour
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Some say from Scots glamer, supposedly from earlier Scots gramarye (“magic, enchantment, spell”).
According to George Mpampiniotis, a glossology professor at the University of Athens, the Scottish term may either be from the Greek word Γραμματική (grammatiki - grammar). A connection has also been suggested with Old Norse glámr (poet. “moon,” name of a ghost) and glámsýni (“glamour, illusion”, literally “glam-sight”). From Grettir's Saga aka Grettis Saga, one of the Sagas of Icelanders, after the hero has been cursed by Glam, aka Glamr:
"...he was become so fearsome a man in the dark, that he durst go nowhither alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors.
And that has fallen since into a proverb, that Glam lends eyes, or gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they are."
Glamsight (glámsýni) is also referred to in the Icelandic collection Sturlunga saga.
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɡlæmə/
Audio (UK) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɡlæmɚ/
- Rhymes: -æmə(ɹ)
NounEdit
glamour (countable and uncountable, plural glamours)
- (uncountable) Originally, enchantment; magic charm; especially, the effect of a spell that causes one to see objects in a form that differs from reality, typically to make filthy, ugly, or repulsive things seem beauteous.
- 1882, James Thomson (B. V.), The City of Dreadful Night:
- They often murmur to themselves, they speak
To one another seldom, for their woe
Broods maddening inwardly and scorns to wreak
Itself abroad; and if at whiles it grow
To frenzy which must rave, none heeds the clamour,
Unless there waits some victim of like glamour,
To rave in turn, who lends attentive show.
- (uncountable) Alluring beauty or charm (often with sex appeal).
- glamour magazines; a glamour model
- (uncountable) Any excitement, appeal, or attractiveness associated with a person, place, or thing; that which makes something appealing.
- The idea of being a movie star has lost its glamour for me.
- 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 197:
- “The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven’t been there yet, and shall not try now. The glamour’s off.”
- 1950 May 7, The Daily Telegraph, page 13, column 3:
- Boys have not lost their love for adventure, and still have `itchy feet.' Many are seeking glamor jobs, want to be writers, detectives, seamen.
- Any artificial interest in, or association with, objects, or persons, through which they appear delusively magnified or glorified.
- A kind of haze in the air, causing things to appear different from what they really are.
- (Can we add an example for this sense?)
- (countable) An item, motif, person, image that by association improves appearance.
Alternative formsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
|
VerbEdit
glamour (third-person singular simple present glamours, present participle glamouring, simple past and past participle glamoured)
- (transitive) To enchant; to bewitch.
ReferencesEdit
- “Glámr” in: Richard Cleasby, Guðbrandur Vigfússon — An Icelandic-English Dictionary (1874)
DanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
glamour c (singular definite glamouren, not used in plural form)
Derived termsEdit
FinnishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
glamour
- glamour (charm)
DeclensionEdit
| Inflection of glamour (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | glamour | glamourit | ||
| genitive | glamourin | glamourien | ||
| partitive | glamouria | glamoureja | ||
| illative | glamouriin | glamoureihin | ||
| singular | plural | |||
| nominative | glamour | glamourit | ||
| accusative | nom. | glamour | glamourit | |
| gen. | glamourin | |||
| genitive | glamourin | glamourien | ||
| partitive | glamouria | glamoureja | ||
| inessive | glamourissa | glamoureissa | ||
| elative | glamourista | glamoureista | ||
| illative | glamouriin | glamoureihin | ||
| adessive | glamourilla | glamoureilla | ||
| ablative | glamourilta | glamoureilta | ||
| allative | glamourille | glamoureille | ||
| essive | glamourina | glamoureina | ||
| translative | glamouriksi | glamoureiksi | ||
| instructive | — | glamourein | ||
| abessive | glamouritta | glamoureitta | ||
| comitative | See the possessive forms below. | |||
FrenchEdit
PronunciationEdit
Audio (file)
NounEdit
glamour m (uncountable)
AdjectiveEdit
glamour (invariable)
Norwegian BokmålEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
glamour m (definite singular glamouren)
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “glamour” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian NynorskEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
glamour m (definite singular glamouren)
Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “glamour” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
PortugueseEdit
EtymologyEdit
Unadapted borrowing from English glamour.
NounEdit
glamour m (uncountable)
SpanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Unadapted borrowing from English glamour.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
glamour m (uncountable)
- Alternative spelling of glamur
Usage notesEdit
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.
Further readingEdit
- “glamour”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
SwedishEdit
NounEdit
glamour c (definite singular glamouren) (uncountable)