glider

Etymology

It is formed from English glide + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The Middle English form was glider, also spelled glydare, from gliden (“to glide”).^[6][5] The verb glide is from Old English glīdan, from Proto-Germanic *glīdaną.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One who glides: about 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, which glosses glydare with Latin serptor.^[2][6] Etymonline dates it to the mid-15th century.^[4] In 1441–2 the word also appears in accounts from a Durham coal mine, perhaps for runners on a sledge.^[6]

Semantic evolution

For four centuries the word meant only a person or thing that glides,^[2][4] and Johnson (1755) defined it so, quoting Spenser.^[8] In the 19th century it was used of animal parts that aid gliding (1873).^[2] Its main modern sense, an engineless aeroplane, appeared in 1897,^[2][4] and after 1910 it also meant a person who flies one.^[2] In the United States a glider is also a swinging seat on a frame, recorded from 1932,^[2][3] and in Australia the name is given to several small marsupials that glide from tree to tree.^[3][7][9] In the second half of the 20th century it was also used of a runner for a curtain (1957).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – a person or thing that glides.^[2][6]
• 1873 – an animal part that helps in gliding.^[2]
• 1897 – an aircraft without an engine.^[2][4]
• 1910 – a person who flies a glider.^[2]
• 1932 – in the United States, a swinging seat hung from a frame.^[2][3]
• 1957 – a runner for a curtain.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light aircraft without an engine, which flies by gliding and by using rising air currents after being towed or launched into the air.^[7][9][5]
2. A person or thing that glides.^[9][5][3]
3. In the United States, a swinging seat or sofa hung from an upright frame, used on a porch.^[5][7][3]
4. Any of several small marsupials of Australia that glide between trees on folds of skin; a flying phalanger.^[7][9][3]
5. A device that helps something slide smoothly, as on the legs of furniture.^[7][5][10]

Word family

• sugar glider

Related words

• glide
• hang glider

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers