Etymologically
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glare

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ɡlɛə/[1]
  • US: /ɡlɛɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English glaren (“to shine brightly, glitter; to stare”).[2][3][4] The OED treats it as a native word matching Middle Dutch glaren and Middle Low German glaren (“to gleam, glare”),[3] and Wiktionary traces it to an unrecorded inherited from Old English *glærian, from Proto-West Germanic *glarōn.[1] Barnhart, Collins, the Shorter Oxford and Hoad instead take glaren as borrowed, perhaps or probably, from that Dutch and Low German verb.[5][6][7][8] Most sources see a probable link with glass,[3][9][8][10][11] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Germanic *glaz- and the root Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to shine”).[12][4] Barnhart and the American Heritage Dictionary take the American adjective glare, smooth and glassy, as in glare ice, as probably from glare itself;[5][4] the OED calls the related noun, a sheet of ice, of obscure origin, comparing the sense "glistening of a surface", and the adjective perhaps an attributive use of it.[3] Barnhart adds that in some uses glare was confused with glair, the white of an egg, which comes from Old French glaire and ultimately Latin clārus (“clear”);[5] the Dictionary of American Regional English also records the spelling glair for the adjective.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To shine brightly, to glitter: about 1250 in the OED, in the Kentish Sermons, where gold "glareth" in the brightness of the sun;[3][2] Barnhart dates the first record to about 1275.[5]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer wrote "Hyt is not al gold that glareth", and in the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales gave the Pardoner "glarynge eyen" like a hare's, the first trace of the sense "to stare".[2][5][11] The Oxford Dictionary of English notes that the staring sense first appeared in the adjective glaring;[10] the verb is recorded for looking fixedly and fiercely from 1609.[3] The noun, dazzling light, is recorded before 1400 in the Destruction of Troy,[3][5] and a fierce look from 1667, in Milton's Paradise Lost, where the verb also became transitive, to express by a glare.[3][5] From the early 18th century the brightness became figurative: a showy, tawdry brilliance from 1706,[3] glaring for conspicuous from 1706,[5] and the verb for obtrusive display from 1712, in Pope.[3] A separate line meant frost or ice: glare for an icy condition in 1567 and 1569,[3][5] then in American English glare ice, smooth slippery ice, from 1832,[5][13] a sheet of ice from 1854[3][5] and the adjective "smooth and glassy" from 1856.[3][13] In Somerset and Dorset glare was the glaze of earthenware, and in Scotland and Essex a wild staring look or a fine show.[14]

Timeline

  • c. 1250 – to shine brilliantly.[3][2]
  • c. 1387–95 – glaring of eyes, staring, in Chaucer.[2][5]
  • before 1400 – noun, dazzling brilliance.[3][5]
  • 1567 – an icy condition, frost (obsolete after 1569).[3][5]
  • 1609 – to look fixedly and fiercely.[3]
  • 1667 – noun, a fierce look; transitive verb, to express with a glare.[3][5]
  • 1706 – showy, gaudy brilliance, and glaring for conspicuous.[3][5]
  • 1712 – to display oneself ostentatiously.[3]
  • 1832 – American English glare ice.[5][13]
  • 1854 – a sheet of ice, in the United States.[3][5]
  • 1856 – adjective, smooth and glassy, of ice.[3][13]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To stare angrily or fiercely; to glower: The goalkeeper glared at the referee.[6][3]
  2. To express something with an angry stare: She glared her disapproval.[6][3]
  3. To shine with a harsh, dazzling light: Headlights glared through the fog.[6][9][3]
  4. To be very conspicuous, or garish.[6][3]

Noun

  1. An angry or fierce stare.[6][3]
  2. A harsh, dazzling light or reflection: the glare of the midday sun.[6][9][3]
  3. Showy brilliance; gaudiness.[6][9][3]
  4. (US) A smooth sheet of ice.[9][3][7]

Adjective

  1. (chiefly US) Of ice, smooth, slippery and glassy: The road was glare ice by morning.[3][7][13]

Word family

  • glareless
  • aglare
  • antiglare
  • nonglare
  • outglare

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ a b c d e f Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
  14. ^ 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)