glim

English

Etymology

From Middle English glim, glimme (“radiance; shining brightness”), of uncertain further origin. Perhaps from Old English gleomu (“splendor”) and/or Old Norse *glim, *glima, both apparently from Proto-Germanic *glimō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). Compare Norwegian Nynorsk glim, dialectal Old Swedish glim, glimma.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡlɪm/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

Noun

glim (countable and uncountable, plural glims)

1. (obsolete) Brightness; splendour.
2. (archaic, slang) A light; a candle; a lantern; a fire.
   • 1837, Charles Dickens, chapter 16, in Oliver Twist:

     'Let's have a glim,' said Sikes, 'or we shall go breaking our necks, or treading on the dog. Look after your legs if you do!'

   • 1851, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick:

     "Come along here, I'll give ye a glim in a jiffy;" and so saying he lighted a candle and held it towards me, offering to lead the way.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 5, in Treasure Island:

     'Sure enough, they left their glim here,' said the fellow from the window.

3. (archaic, slang) An eye.
4. (archaic, slang) A pair of glasses or spectacles.
5. (archaic, slang) A look; a glimpse.
6. (archaic, slang) Gonorrhea.
7. (archaic, slang) Fake documents claiming the loss of property by fire (for use in begging).
   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, “Of the 'Screevers,' or Writers of Begging-Letters and Petitions”, in London Labour and the London Poor‎^[1], volume 1, page 312:

     Tayler Tom lent me a shillin wish I send inklosed and yu must porn sumthing for anuther shilling and get Joe the Loryer to rite a fake for William not a glim (loss by fire) but a brakd say as e ad a hors fell downe with the mad staggurs an broke all is plates and dishes an we are starvin you can sa that the children is got the mesuls […]

Derived terms

• (eye): glimflashy (“angry”)

Verb

glim (third-person singular simple present glims, present participle glimming, simple past and past participle glimmed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To brand on the hand.
   • 1714, Memoirs of the Right Villainous John Hall:

     Profligate women were glimm'd for that villany.

2. (dated, slang) To illuminate.
3. (dated, slang) To see; to observe.
   • 1918, Tommy West, The Long, Long Trail in the World of Sport:

     About 9 o'clock he showed up and he knew me the moment he glimmed me.

   • 1943 December 11, “Pipes for Pitchmen”, in Billboard‎^[2], page 55:

     Heibers further states he glimmed the following on Maxwell Street on a Sunday morning […]

References

• John S[tephen] Farmer; W[illiam] E[rnest] Henley, compilers (1893) “glim”, in Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present. […], volume III, [London: […] Harrison and Sons] […], →OCLC, pages 153–155.

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

Verb

glim

1. inflection of glimmen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Old Norse [Term?], whence also English glim; from Proto-Germanic *glīmô (“shine, splendor”).

Noun

glim m or n (definite singular glimen or glimet, indefinite plural glimar or glim, definite plural glimane or glima)

1. glimpse
2. glimmer
3. glitter

Etymology 2

Verb

glim

1. imperative of glime
2. (non-standard since 1938) present tense of glime

References

• “glim” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• Orel, Vladimir (2003) “*ʒlīmōn”, in A Handbook of Germanic Etymology‎^[3], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 136