glower

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Most dictionaries connect it with inherited from Middle English gloren (“to shine, gleam; to stare, glare”), also glouren,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} the source of the dialect verb glore, to stare;^[9][10] the Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad take glower as perhaps a Scots variant of it.^[10][9] The OED agrees that glower and gloren match in sense, but finds the different vowel against their being one word, and suggests that glower may instead be formed from English glow (“to stare”) + -er, from an obsolete glow meaning to stare.^[2][10][3] The Middle English verb is perhaps of Scandinavian origin:^{[11][5][7][9]} Barnhart and Etymonline compare the dialect word Norwegian glora (“to glow, stare”) and Icelandic glóra (“to gleam, glare”),^[5][6][9] and the Middle English Dictionary compares Middle Dutch gloren.^[4] Others compare the Low German forms, Middle Low German glūren (“to watch”),^[12][7] and Dutch gluren (“to peep”).^[7][13] Barnhart and Etymonline relate it, through the base Proto-Germanic *glō-, to Old English glōwan (“to glow”), the source of glow, which influenced the spelling glower;^[5][6] Weekley thought that lour influenced both its sound and its sense.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To stare with wide-open eyes, to gaze intently or in surprise: before 1513, in the Scots poems of W. Dunbar.^[2][3] The Middle English gloren that most dictionaries connect with it meant "to shine, gleam" from about 1350,^[6][4][5] and "to stare, glare" in texts of the first half of the 15th century, such as the alliterative Morte Arthure and the York Plays.^[4]

Semantic evolution

For two centuries glower was a Scottish word for staring hard or in wonder.^[2][3][14] The noun, an open-eyed stare, followed in 1715, in a Scottish collection of poems.^[2][5][6] Weekley describes the verb as introduced into English from Scots in the 18th century,^[14] and the sense "to look angrily, to scowl" is recorded from 1775, in F. Burney's journal;^[2] Hoad dates it to the 18th century as well.^[9] In the dialects of Scotland, Ireland and England the verb meant to stare or to look threateningly, and was also said of the weather, for looking overcast or stormy,^[15][2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged still labels the plain "look intently, stare in amazement" sense dialectal and British.^[7]

Timeline

• before 1513 – to stare with wide-open eyes, to gaze intently (Scottish).^[2]
• 1715 – noun, a fixed, intent look or stare.^[2][5]
• 1775 – to look angrily, to scowl.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stare with sullen anger or annoyance; to scowl: The goalkeeper glowered at the referee.^[12][7][2]
2. (dialect) To look intently or stare in amazement.^[7][2][15]
3. (dialect) Of the weather, to look overcast or stormy.^[2][15]

Noun

1. An angry or sullen stare; a scowl.^[12][7]
2. (dialect) An intent look or amazed stare.^[7][2]

Word family

• gloweringly

Related words

• glow
• glare
• lour

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged also has a separate noun glower, from glow and -er, for the glowing element of a Nernst lamp.^[7]

References

1. ^ 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 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 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)
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c 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)