gleam

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See also: glean

English

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WOTD – 9 November 2022

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English glem, gleam, gleme (“shaft of light; part of a comet’s tail; reflected sparkle; dawn; daylight; radiance (physical or spiritual); something fleeting”),[1] from Old English glǣm (“gleam”), from Proto-Germanic *glaimiz (“brightness; splendour”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”).[2]

cognates

Noun

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gleam (countable and uncountable, plural gleams)

  1. (countable) An appearance of light, especially one which is indistinct or small, or short-lived.
    Synonym: (Britain, dialectal) leam
    • c. 1599 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], The History of Antonio and Mellida. The First Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Mathewe Lownes, and Thomas Fisher, […], published 1602, →OCLC, Act III, signature D4, verso:
      Is not yon gleame, the ſhuddering morne that flakes, / VVith ſiluer tinctur, the eaſt vierge of heauen?
    • 1677, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels into Divers Parts of Africa, and Asia the Great. […], 4th edition, London: […] R. Everingham, for R. Scot, T. Basset, J[ohn] Wright, and R. Chiswell, →OCLC, page 30:
      Sailing between Madagaſcar and Zeyloon (at or Near this place) in a dark night ſuddenly there happened a gleam of light, ſo bright that he could eaſily read by it. Amazed he vvas at this alteration; but at length perceived it vvas occaſioned by a number of Fiſh, vvhoſe glittering ſhells made that artificial light in the night, and gave the Sea a vvhite repercuſſion: […]
    • 1760, Oliver Goldsmith, “Letter CXIV. To the Same [From Lien Chi Altangi, to Fum Hoam, First President of the Ceremonial Academy at Pekin, in China].”, in The Citizen of the World; or Letters from a Chinese Philosopher, […], volume II, London: […] [F]or the author; and sold by J. Newbery and W. Bristow, […]; J. Leake and W. Frederick, […]; B. Collins, […]; and A. M. Smart and Co. […], published 1762, →OCLC, page 210:
      VVhat a gloom hangs all around! the dying lamp feebly emits a yellovv gleam, no ſound is heard but of the chiming clock, or the diſtant vvatch-dog.
    • 1807, William Wordsworth, “Elegiac Stanzas, […]”, in Poems, in Two Volumes, volume II, London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], →OCLC, page 142:
      Ah! then, if mine had been the Painter's hand, / To express what then I saw; and add the gleam, / The light that never was, on sea or land, / The consecration, and the Poet's dream; // I would have planted thee, thou hoary Pile! / Amid a world how different from this!
    • 1838, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Novice”, in “Leila; or, The Siege of Granada”, in Leila; or, The Siege of Granada: And Calderon, the Courtier. […], London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans; Paris: Delloy and Co., →OCLC, book V, page 238:
      But a faint and partial gleam of sunshine broke through the aperture, and made yet more cheerless the dreary aspect and gloomy appurtenances of the cell.
    • 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Landlord’s Tale. Paul Revere’s Ride.”, in Tales of a Wayside Inn, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 22:
      And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height / A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
    • 1868 May 9, Fr[ancis] Bret Harte, “John Burns of Gettysburg”, in Littel’s Living Age, volume IX (4th Series; volume XCVII overall), number 1249, Boston, Mass.: Littel & Gay, →OCLC, page 322, column 2:
      And some of the soldiers since declare / That the gleam of his old white hat afar, / Like the crested plume of the brave Navarre, / That day was their oriflamme of war.
  2. (countable, figuratively)
    1. An indistinct sign of something; a glimpse or hint.
      Synonyms: flicker, glimmer, trace
      The rescue workers preserved a gleam of optimism that the trapped miners might still survive.
    2. A bright, but intermittent or short-lived, appearance of something.
    3. A look of joy or liveliness on one's face.
  3. (obsolete)
    1. (countable) Sometimes as hot gleam: a warm ray of sunlight; also, a period of warm weather, for instance, between showers of rain.
      • 1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XVI.] Of Certaine Prodigious Trees, and Presages Observed by Them. By what Meanes Trees Grow of Their Owne Accord. That All Plants Grow Not Every Where: And what Trees They be that are Appropriate to Certaine Regions, and are Not Elsewhere to be Found.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 478:
        The Pepper-trees live in Italie; the ſhrub of Caſia or the Canell likevviſe in the Northerly regions; the Frankincenſe tree alſo hath been knovvne to live in Lydia: but vvhere vvere the hote gleames of the Sunne to be found in thoſe regions, either to drie up the vvateriſh humor of the one, or to concot and thicken the gumme and roſin of the other?
      • 1697, William Dampier, chapter XIX, in A New Voyage Round the World. […], London: […] James Knapton, […], →OCLC, page 530:
        [W]e felt a brisk gale coming from off the Coaſt of America, but ſo violently hot, that vve thought it came from ſome burning Mountain on the ſhore, and vvas like the heat from the mouth of an Oven. Juſt ſuch another gleam I felt one afternoon alſo, as I lay anchor at the Groin in July 1694. it came vvith a Southerly VVind: both theſe vvere follovved by a Thunder-ſhovver.
    2. (uncountable) Brightness or shininess; radiance, splendour.
      Synonyms: dazzle, lambency, shine
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English glemen (“to shine; to glance, look”) [and other forms],[3] from glem, gleam (noun) (see etymology 1) + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).[4][5]

Verb

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gleam (third-person singular simple present gleams, present participle gleaming, simple past and past participle gleamed)

  1. (transitive) Chiefly in conjunction with an adverb: to cause (light) to shine.
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, signature K, verso:
      Many a dry drop ſeem'd a vveeping teare, / Shed for the ſlaughtred husband by the vvife. / The red bloud reek'd to ſhevv the Painters ſtrife, / And dying eyes gleem'd forth their aſhie lights, / Like dying coales burnt out in tedious nights.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To shine, especially in an indistinct or intermittent manner; to glisten, to glitter.
      Synonyms: glint, glow, (Britain, dialectal) leam, sparkle
    2. (figuratively) To be strongly but briefly apparent.
      Synonyms: flare, flash, kindle
Conjugation
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Conjugation of gleam
infinitive (to) gleam
present tense past tense
1st-person singular gleam gleamed
2nd-person singular gleam, gleamest† gleamed, gleamedst†
3rd-person singular gleams, gleameth† gleamed
plural gleam
subjunctive gleam gleamed
imperative gleam —
participles gleaming gleamed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 3

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A variant of Middle English gleimen, gleym (“to smear; to make slimy or sticky; to fill up (the stomach); to nauseate; of a slimy or viscous substance: to be stuck together; (figuratively) to captivate, ensnare; to infect with heresy”) [and other forms], probably a blend of glet (“slimy or viscous matter produced by animals; mucus, phlegm; congestion of mucus or phlegm in the body; viscosity”),[6] gleu (“substance used to stick things together, glue; viscous medicine made from plants”),[7] etc. + Old Norse kleima (“to daub, smear”) (whence Old English clǣman (“to smear”))[8][9] (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *klaimijaną (“to smear with clay, to mortar”), from *klaimaz (“clay; mortar”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y- (“to glue, stick; to smear”)).

Verb

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gleam (third-person singular simple present gleams, present participle gleaming, simple past and past participle gleamed)

  1. (intransitive, falconry, obsolete) Of a hawk or other bird of prey: to disgorge filth from its crop or gorge.
    • 1800, “Gleam”, in The Sportsman’s Dictionary; or, The Gentleman’s Companion: For Town and Country. […], 4th edition, London: […] G. G. and J. Robinson, […]; by R. Noble, […], →OCLC, column 1:
      Gleam, a term uſed after a hawk hath caſt and gleameth, or throweth up filth from her gorge.

References

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  1. ^ “glēm, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “gleam, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “gleam, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “glēmen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  5. ^ Compare “gleam, v.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “gleam, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  6. ^ “glet, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  7. ^ “gleu, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  8. ^ “gleimen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  9. ^ Compare “gleam, v.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2018.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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