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Etymology and origin of the English word gland

English has two words spelled gland: the organ of secretion, borrowed from French in the late 17th century, and a mechanical sleeve or packing device of uncertain origin, recorded from the 19th century.[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

gland1 organ of secretion

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1692 J. Ray, Miscellaneous Discourses
Borrowed from
French glande
Ultimate origin
Latin glāns

Etymology

The organ is borrowed from French glande,[2][5][3][1][6][7] an alteration of Old French glandre (“gland, swollen gland in the neck”),[2][3][8][9] from Latin glandula (“gland of the throat, tonsil”),[5][8][3] a diminutive of glāns (“acorn”).[5][3][9][10] The Latin noun is cognate with Ancient Greek βάλανος (bálanos, “acorn”) and Lithuanian gilė (“acorn”),[5][10][1] and Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to a PIE root Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“acorn”).[5][8] Middle English had already borrowed the diminutive as glandele, also glandula, an inflamed or swollen gland, recorded before 1400 in Lanfranc's “Science of Surgery”;[11][8][5] Barnhart suggests that gland may partly be a shortening of it.[8] The French form glandre survives in glanders.[12][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

An organ that separates certain substances from the blood for use in the body or for elimination: 1692, in J. Ray's Miscellaneous Discourses concerning the Dissolution of the World.[2][1][8]

Semantic evolution

The Latin glandula was used of the glands of the throat, the tonsils, and the sense was extended from them to glands in general;[5] the comparison of a rounded swelling with an acorn is the same kind of metaphor as almond and kernel for glands.[12] In Middle English the borrowed glandele meant chiefly an inflamed or enlarged gland, or a rounded tumour.[11] Johnson (1755) divided the glands of the body into two sorts, conglobate and conglomerate.[13] In botany, a secreting cell or group of cells on the surface of a plant has been called a gland since 1785.[2][7] The term was also applied loosely to organs that look like glands but secrete nothing, such as the lymph nodes.[14][15][7]

Timeline

  • before 1400 – glandele, glandula, a gland, especially an inflamed one, in Lanfranc's “Science of Surgery”.[11][8]
  • 1692 – gland, an organ of secretion.[2][1]
  • 1785 – in botany, a secreting cell or group of cells on a plant.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cell, group of cells or organ that produces a secretion, either for use elsewhere in the body or for elimination, through a duct or directly into the bloodstream: The doctor felt the glands in her neck.[14][15][1]
  2. A structure, such as a lymph node, that resembles a gland but does not secrete.[14][15][1]
  3. (botany) A cell or group of cells on a plant that secretes a substance such as nectar or resin.[15][2]

Word family

  • glandless
  • glandlike
  • glandular
  • glandulous
  • prostaglandin
  • adrenal gland

gland2 sleeve, packing device

Confidence
Uncertain
First attested
1825
From
Scots glam

Etymology

The mechanical gland is of unknown origin according to Merriam-Webster, the American Heritage Dictionary and Collins.[1][14][15] The OED takes it as perhaps a variant of glan or glam, comparing the Scots glaun or glaund, a clamp of iron or wood,[2] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English as probably from Scots glam (“vice, clamp”),[7][16] which the OED in turn derives from clam, a clamp.[2] The American Heritage Dictionary also compares the Scots glams (“jaws of a vice, pincers”), and the Oxford Dictionary of English relates the word to clamp.[3][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cross-piece or clutch fixed to a shaft that sets a machine in motion by engaging the gearing: 1825, in J. Nicholson's The Operative Mechanic, and British Machinist.[2]

Semantic evolution

The main modern sense, a sleeve pressing the packing tight around a piston rod, is first recorded in 1839, in R. S. Robinson's Nautical Steam Engine Explained;[2][1] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1830–40.[17] In founding, a gland was also a hooked bar clamping the parts of a moulder's flask together, or a clip-plate (1875).[2] In Northumberland dialect it was the space for the packing around a piston rod.[18] Merriam-Webster also records it for a short tube fitted to the envelope of a balloon or airship so that a rope can pass through without leaking.[1]

Timeline

  • 1825 – a cross-piece or clutch on a shaft.[2]
  • 1839 – a sleeve pressing the packing round a piston rod.[2][1]
  • 1875 – in founding, a hooked bar or clip-plate.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A device that stops steam, water, gas or another fluid leaking past a moving part of a machine, especially the movable sleeve of a stuffing box that compresses the packing: The engineer tightened the gland on the pump shaft.[14][1][2][7]
  2. A short tube in the envelope of a balloon or airship through which a rope can pass without leakage.[1]
  • glans
  • glanders
  • glandule
  • clam
  • clamp

Usage notes

A third, now rare gland, an acorn, borrowed from French or directly from Latin glans in late Middle English, is recorded by the OED and the Shorter Oxford; in the 19th century it was also used for an acorn-shaped lead missile.[2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  9. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ 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)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gland.” Etymologically, 31 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/gland. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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