vainglory

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English veinglorie, also vainglorie,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French vaine gloire, also veine gloire,^[5][4][3][6] from Medieval Latin vāna glōria (“empty glory”).^[5][3] Barnhart takes it from the French and the Latin together,^[6] and the OED directly from the Latin, with the French only compared;^[7] the Middle English Dictionary and the Shorter Oxford instead see it as formed from vain and glory on the French and Latin model.^[2][8] The Latin phrase is the feminine of Latin vānus (“empty”) with glōria (“glory, pride”).^[5] The same phrase gave Italian vanagloria, Spanish vanagloria and Portuguese vangloria.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barnhart finds veine gloire probably before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[6] and Etymonline dates vein-glorie, worthless glory or undue show, to about 1200.^[3] The OED's first quotation, for empty glory or unwarranted pride, is from before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Middle English word covered both empty honour or display and excessive pride in oneself, including the expression of it as boastfulness.^[2] Chaucer's Knight's Tale of about 1385 sets it beside victory and renown.^[2] Personified, it served as a name from about 1400,^[7] and the plural could mean vain things or displays, as in Shakespeare's "these feasts, pomps, and vainglories" in Timon of Athens.^[8][4] Johnson (1755) defines it as pride above merit, or pride in little things, with examples from Bacon and Pope.^[9] A rare verb appears before 1637, in N. Ferrar's translation of Valdés, reflexive at first,^[7] and the intransitive use is dated to the late 19th century by the Shorter Oxford.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – veine gloire, vein-glorie, worthless glory.^[6][3]
• before 1300 – inordinate pride in one's own qualities.^[7] Barnhart dates the spelling as one word, waynglori, in the same text, to before 1325.^[6]
• c. 1380 – in the phrase for vainglory.^[7]
• 1387 – the spelling vaynglorie.^[6]
• c. 1400 – as a personal name or personification.^[7]
• c. 1450 – a vainglorious thing or act.^[7]
• before 1637 – verb, to exalt oneself unduly.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Excessive or ostentatious pride, especially in one's own achievements; boastfulness: His speech was all vainglory and no substance.^[10][4][7]
2. Vain display or show; ostentation.^[10][4]
3. (rare) A vainglorious thing or act.^[7][8]

Verb

1. (rare) To indulge in vainglory.^[4][8][7]

Word family

• vainglorious

Related words

• vain
• glory
• vanity

References

1. ^ a b 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins