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gland

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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

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

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)