Etymologically
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glad

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡlæd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English glad (“shining; joyful”),[2][3] inherited from Old English glæd (“bright, shining; joyous; gracious”),[4][3] from Proto-Germanic *gladaz.[4][3] It is cognate with Old Norse glaðr “smooth, bright, glad”, Old Frisian gled “smooth”, Dutch glad “slippery” and German glatt “smooth”,[4][3][5] and outside Germanic with Latin glaber (“smooth, bald”), the source of glabrous, and Old Church Slavonic gladŭkŭ “even, polished”.[3][6] Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to shine”);[4] Merriam-Webster compares Old English geolu “yellow”.[2] The verb is Old English gladian, from the adjective.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English glæd, about 725 in Beowulf,[3] meant “bright, shining, beautiful”[8][9] as well as “joyous, pleasant, gracious”.[4] Of persons, “cheerful, joyous by disposition”, it is from about 897.[8]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has weakened over time:[9] from “bright, shining”, apparently with the notion of being radiant with joy,[4] it came to mean “delighted, rejoicing”, and now usually just “pleased”.[9] The sense “bright, shining” became obsolete,[8] while “cheerful by nature” is now archaic.[10][8] The sense “pleased about an event or state of things” is from about 950.[8] Old English also had glæd as a noun, “joy, gladness”, obsolete since the early 17th century.[4][7] Glad rags, one's best clothes, is American slang from about 1902,[4][9] and the glad eye, an inviting look, British from about the same time.[9] In Scots and northern dialect glad could mean “working smoothly, slippery”, close to the German sense.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – bright, shining; joyous.[3]
  • c. 825 – verb, to make glad.[8]
  • c. 897 – cheerful in disposition.[8]
  • c. 950 – pleased about something.[8]
  • 1902 – glad rags.[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Feeling or showing joy and pleasure; pleased.
  2. Giving joy or pleasure: glad tidings.
  3. Very willing: glad to help.
  4. (archaic) Bright and cheerful; cheerful by nature.

Verb

  1. (archaic) To gladden.

Word family

  • gladly
  • gladness
  • gladden
  • glad-hand
  • gladsome
  • overglad
  • unglad
  • glad rags

Usage notes

Of the adjectives for good spirits, glad usually describes the satisfaction of a wish or with present circumstances, while happy is more general and joyful and joyous are stronger.[12] A separate noun glad, usually plural, is a colloquial shortening of gladiolus from 1923.[8][2]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin