Etymologically
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glue

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English glu (also glew),[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French glu (“glue, birdlime”),[5][4][6][7] from Late Latin glūs (stem glūt-),[5][8][9] a post-classical form of Latin glūten (“glue, beeswax”).[4][2][10] Etymonline and Klein trace the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *gleit- (“to glue, paste”), which also gave Lithuanian glitùs (“sticky, slippery”) and Old English clīþa (“plaster”);[4][11] Hoad, Collins and Dictionary.com compare Ancient Greek γλοιός (gloiós, “gum, anything sticky”),[8][12][13] and Barnhart and Merriam-Webster connect the word with clay.[6][3] The verb is glewen, partly gluer (“to smear with glue”) and partly made from the noun.[6][4][5][9] In Anglo-Norman the noun is recorded from the mid-12th century, for glue, gum and birdlime.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A substance used to stick things together: 1225, as glu, in Barnhart's dating;[6] Etymonline gives the early 13th century.[6][4] The OED's first example is figurative, from the Ayenbite of Inwyt (1340), and Merriam-Webster dates the noun to the 14th century.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English glue was also birdlime, the sticky paste smeared on twigs to catch birds (c. 1380–1704), as the French word still is.[5][14][15] The Wycliffite Bible (1382) used it for the pitch with which Noah's ark was sealed.[5] The narrower sense, gelatin boiled from the hides, hooves and bones of animals, is found from about 1400,[5][4] and Johnson (1755) defined it in just these terms, deriving the word from French glu, Latin gluten and Welsh glud.[16] From 1683 to 1802 glue was also the gum that oozes from the bark of fruit trees,[5][9] a sense still heard in Shropshire dialect around 1900 for the gum of plum and cherry trees.[17] The verb appears in Chaucer, figuratively in the House of Fame (c. 1384) and literally in the Squire's Tale (c. 1386).[5] Glue-sniffing is recorded from 1962.[4]

Timeline

  • 1225 – the noun, as glu.[6]
  • 1340 – figurative use.[5]
  • c. 1380 – birdlime (obsolete after 1704).[5]
  • 1382 – pitch, bitumen; also the verb, to smear with glue.[5]
  • c. 1384 – the verb, to fix firmly, in Chaucer.[5]
  • c. 1400 – gelatin glue made from animal hides and bones.[5][4]
  • 1683 – the gum of fruit trees (obsolete after 1802).[5]
  • 1885 – a stage in the making of soap.[5]
  • 1962 – glue-sniffing.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. An adhesive, especially a sticky gelatin made by boiling animal hides, bones and hooves, or a synthetic substance that does the same work.
  2. Any sticky substance used to join things together.

Verb

  1. To join or fasten with glue: He glued the broken handle back onto the jug.
  2. To fix or hold closely, as if with glue: Her eyes stayed glued to the scoreboard.
  3. (intransitive) To stick together, or to admit of being fastened with glue.

Word family

  • gluey
  • gluiness
  • gluelike
  • gluer
  • gluepot
  • gluon
  • gluten
  • glutinous
  • agglutinate
  • clay

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  15. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  17. ^ 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)