glint

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English glinten,^[2] altered from Middle English glenten (“to move quickly aside; to gleam”),^{[3][2][4][5][6][7]} perhaps through its past participle glynt, spelled so as early as 1400.^[8] This verb is probably of Scandinavian origin;^{[3][5][6][8][9]} the sources compare dialectal Swedish glänta and glinta, to slip, slide or gleam,^[3][6][10] dialectal Norwegian gletta (“to look”),^[8][7][9] and Danish glente.^[11][9] The Germanic root also appears in Old High German glanz (“bright, clear”), whence German glänzen (“to shine”),^[3][8][12] and in Middle High German glinzen (“to shine, gleam”), from Proto-Germanic *glintaną (“to shine, look”);^[13][1] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *gʰlend-,^[8][13] and Etymonline to the Germanic words in gl- for shining and smoothness, from *ǵʰel- (“to shine”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move quickly, especially aside: about 1440, in Partonope;^[3] the sense "to shine with a flashing light" is recorded in the same years, in Generydes.^[3] The OED notes that the rhyme shows glent to have been the original reading in two of the 15th-century passages.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Its source glent is recorded from the early 14th century in the senses "to look askance" (1303) and "to move quickly, glide aside" (about 1330), and also, from about 1400, of light, "to flash, gleam".^[3][8] Glint was rare in the 15th century and then disappeared from writing until Scots poets took it up in the 18th century.^[3][14] Burns used it of the rising sun in The Holy Fair;^[15][8] from his work it passed into English literary use in the 19th century.^[3][8][7] In the dialects it was widely used for shining, sparkling or peeping out, from Scotland and Ireland to the northern and Midland counties and parts of the south.^[15] The noun, a gleam, has a doubtful first record in Wyatt (before 1542), whose text is insecure, and is otherwise recorded from 1826.^[3][7][8] From the 19th century the noun and the verb were also used, chiefly in Scotland and the north, of a passing look or glimpse,^[3] and Joyce has have a glint for "take a look".^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – to move quickly, glance aside; to shine with a flashing light.^[3]
• before 1542 – noun, a gleam (an insecure text).^[3]
• 1785 – to shine, in Burns's The Holy Fair.^[15] Barnhart and Etymonline date Burns's use to 1787.^[8][7]
• 1826 – noun, a gleam, momentary appearance of light.^[7][8]
• 1832 – to glance (the eye), in Scots.^[3]
• 1838 – noun, a glance, glimpse, chiefly Scottish or northern.^[3]
• 1844 – to make something gleam; noun, shine, lustre, in Lowell.^[3]
• 1888 – to peep, take a glance.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shine with small, bright flashes; to gleam or sparkle: The lake glinted in the morning sun.^[10][2][3]
2. To cause to gleam or flash.^[10][3]
3. (archaic) To move quickly, especially at a slant; to glance off something.^[2][4][3]

Noun

1. A brief bright flash of light, often reflected: the glint of a blade in the dark.^[10][2][3]
2. Brightness or lustre; a shine.^[10][3]
3. A brief or faint sign of something: a glint of humour in his eyes.^[10]
4. (chiefly Scottish) A passing look; a glimpse.^[3][16]

Word family

• aglint
• glinty

Related words

• glent
• glance
• glitter
• gleam
• glimmer

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford also record a separate noun glint in physical geography, a steep escarpment of nearly horizontal strata left by erosion, from 1906; it is borrowed from Swedish klint (“cliff”), cognate with English clint.^[3][4] The OED also has an obsolete adjective glint, slippery (about 1475 to 1523).^[3] In Shropshire dialect glint meant to dry or wither, and as an adjective, of a knife, blunt.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c d 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)
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com