Etymologically
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glee

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English gle, also gleo and glew,[2] inherited from Old English glīw, also glēo and glēow,[3][4][5][6] recorded as gliu about 700 and glio before 800.[7] The Old English word, a strong neuter, is inherited from Proto-Germanic *glīwą (“joy”);[8] Barnhart, Hoad and Ayto write the Germanic form *gliujam, and Etymonline *gleujam.[7][5][9][10] Its only Germanic cognate is the rare and poetic Old Norse glý (“joy, gladness”).[3][8][5][10] The further origin is uncertain and disputed:[3] the OED, Etymonline and Klein connect it with the Germanic words for shining that begin with the same consonants, such as gleam, glitter and glad,[3][10][11] and the American Heritage Dictionary puts it under the root Proto-Indo-European *ghel- (“to shine”);[12][10] Kroonen reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *gʰlei-uo- and compares Old Irish glé (“bright”).[8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare instead Ancient Greek χλεύη (chleúē, “joke, mockery”), and Barnhart derives it from Proto-Indo-European *ghleu- (“to be merry”).[7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Entertainment, play, sport, sometimes scornful jesting or mockery: before 700.[14][7] Bosworth–Toller glosses the Old English word as joy, minstrelsy, mirth and jesting, and quotes the Exeter Book on the man who can play the harp and so "has his gift of glee".[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the word could mean entertainment, merriment and music all at once, especially in verse, and it overlapped with drēam and gamen.[3][9] The musical sense, music or musical entertainment, is recorded from about 1000, and a musical instrument from before 1225;[14] in Middle English Chaucer used gle for entertainment, a musical instrument and a tune.[15][2] The sense "mirth, joy" is recorded from before 1250.[14] The word was chiefly poetic throughout Old and Middle English and became rare after the 15th century;[7][3][9] Phillips (1706) and Kersey (1708) marked it obsolete, and Johnson (1755) said it was "not now used, except in ludicrous writing, or with some mixture of irony and contempt".[3][16][9] It became common again in the second half of the 18th century, for reasons that are unknown.[3][7][9][17] The musical sense survived in glee, a song in three or more parts for unaccompanied voices, recorded from 1659,[14][7][10] a form that flourished from 1760 to 1830 and gave the glee club (1814).[10][7] The modern sense is a lively, openly shown delight, often at another's misfortune.[4][18][13] In Scots the word was also an adjective, merry.[19]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English gliu, entertainment, play, sport.[7][14]
  • c. 1000 – musical entertainment, music.[14]
  • before 1225 – a musical instrument.[14]
  • before 1250 – Middle English gle; mirth, joy.[7][14]
  • late Middle English – bright colour, beauty (obsolete by the late 16th century).[4]
  • 1659 – a part-song for three or more voices.[14][7]
  • 1706 – marked obsolete by Phillips.[3]
  • 1755 – Johnson calls it a word for ludicrous or ironic writing.[16]
  • 1814 – glee club.[7][10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Great delight or high-spirited joy, openly shown, often at someone else's misfortune: The children shrieked with glee as the snow began to fall.[18][13][4]
  2. An unaccompanied part-song for three or more voices, of a kind popular in 18th-century England.[18][4][14]
  3. (obsolete) Entertainment, play or sport; also mockery.[14][4][2]
  4. (obsolete) Music or musical entertainment; minstrelsy.[14][4][2]

Word family

  • gleeful
  • gleeman
  • gleesome
  • glee club

Usage notes

A Scots and northern English verb glee or gley, to squint or look sideways, and a noun for a squint, have a separate source, Middle English glien or gleen;[13][14][19] Dictionary.com suggests a Scandinavian origin and compares Old Norse gljá (“to shine”).[20] In 18th-century thieves' cant glee meant to see or look at.[21]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ a b c d e Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  15. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  18. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ a b 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)
  20. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  21. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com