glance

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɡlɑːns/, US /ɡlæns/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English glauncen (“to glide off at a slant”), probably a variant of earlier glacen (“to graze, strike a glancing blow”) (about 1300),^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French glacier (“to slip, make slippery”), from glace (“ice”) (see glacier).^[2][3][4] The n and the sense of looking quickly were probably influenced by glenten (“to look askance”) (see glint),^[2][3][4][5] and perhaps by gancir (“to turn aside, swerve”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a weapon, to glide off at a slant without striking fully: 1441 in Barnhart, about 1450 in the OED, the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[2][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun, a sudden movement producing a flash, is from 1503,^[2][6][3] and a swift oblique movement from 1570.^[6] The sense to look quickly is not recorded until 1583,^[2][3] and a brief look from 1591.^[6][3] An allusion is an obsolete sense of 1602,^[6] and in cricket a glance is a stroke that deflects the ball (1883).^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – glacen, to graze.^[2]
• 1441 – to glance off.^[2]
• 1503 – a flash (noun).^[2][6]
• 1583 – to look quickly.^[2]
• 1591 – a brief look.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To look briefly or hastily.
2. To read or look through quickly, with over or through.
3. To gleam or glint.
4. To strike at an angle and bounce off, often with off.
5. To touch briefly on a subject.

Noun

1. A brief or hasty look.
2. A quick flash of light; a gleam.
3. An oblique, deflected movement.

Word family

• glancer

Related words

• glint
• glacier
• glacial

Usage notes

Glance, a lustrous ore (1457–8), is a separate word, from German Glanz (“lustre”).^[5][6][7]

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 e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin