glamour
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɡlæmə/
ipa: /ˈɡlæmɚ/
rhymes: -æmə(ɹ)
Forms: form: glamours
form: glamor
Etymology: Borrowed from Scots glamour (“magic”), alteration of Middle English gramere (“grammar”), from Old French gramaire. Doublet of glamoury, gramarye, grammar, and grimoire.
A connection has also been suggested with Old Norse glámr (“the moon", also "the name of a ghost”, poetic byname, literally “the pale one”) and glámsýni (“glamour, illusion”, literally “glam-sight”). From Grettir's Saga aka Grettis Saga, one of the Sagas of Icelanders, after the hero has been cursed by Glam, aka Glamr:
"...he was become so fearsome a man in the dark, that he durst go nowhither alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors.
And that has fallen since into a proverb, that "Glam lends eyes", or gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they are."
Senses: examples: text: They often murmur to themselves, they speak
To one another seldom, for their woe
Broods maddening inwardly and scorns to wreak
Itself abroad; and if at whiles it grow
To frenzy which must rave, none heeds the clamour,
Unless there waits some victim of like glamour,
To rave in turn, who lends attentive show.
ref: 1882, James Thomson (B. V.), The City of Dreadful Night:
glosses: Originally, enchantment; magic charm; especially, the effect of a spell that causes one to see objects in a form that differs from reality, typically to make filthy, ugly, or repulsive things seem beauteous.
examples: glamour magazines; a glamour model
glosses: Alluring beauty or charm (often with sex appeal).
examples: text: The idea of being a movie star has lost its glamour for me.
text: “The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven’t been there yet, and shall not try now. The glamour’s off.”
ref: 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 197:
text: Boys have not lost their love for adventure, and still have `itchy feet.' Many are seeking glamor jobs, want to be writers, detectives, seamen.
ref: 1950 May 7, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, page 13, column 3:
glosses: Any excitement, appeal, or attractiveness associated with a person, place, or thing; that which makes something appealing.
glosses: Any artificial interest in, or association with, objects, or persons, through which they appear delusively magnified or glorified.
examples: text: When the golden October comes, with its witching of hazy air that makes a glamour for all things and any landscape, we shall see these offspring of poetic myth stretch out beside the creeks, breaking the tender hulls for their magical chincapins, and feeding on them and on the dreams of which they are the talismans.
ref: 1861 October 24, “The Nelumbium Luteum, or Yellow Egyptian Lotus.”, in Thomas Meehan, editor, The Gardner’s Monthly and Advertiser Horticultural, volume III, number 10, 23 North Sixth Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, page 311:
glosses: A kind of haze in the air, causing things to appear different from what they really are.
glosses: An item, motif, person, image that by association improves appearance.
examples: text: One of the Qantas staff, a glamour, made her way over to us.
ref: 1995, Paul Vautin, Turn It Up!, Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, page 214:
glosses: A beautiful woman.
Derived terms: beglammer
beglamour
beglamourment
englamour
glam
glamazonian
glambassador
glammed up
glamorous
glamourous
glamorously
glamourama
glamourful
glamour girl
glamourise
glamour issue
glamourization
glamourize
glamourless
glamour model
glamour photography
glamourpuss
glamour-puss
glamoursome
glamourwear
glam rock
glitz and glamour