glamour

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a special quality of beauty, excitement, or charm that attracts admiration

   The documentary contrasts the glamour of the stage with the exhausting work backstage.

2. 2
   noun

   a magical enchantment or deceptive spell

   In the legend, a glamour made the ruined hall appear as a splendid palace.

3. 3
   verb

   to enchant or influence as if by a spell

   The sorcerer glamoured the travelers into seeing a safe bridge over the chasm.

Simplified etymology

Glamour began in early 18th-century Scots as an altered form of grammar, meaning enchantment, magic, or a spell. Medieval grammar meant scholarship or learning, from Greek gramma, “a letter” or “something written,” and book learning became popularly associated with astrology and occult practices. Glamour developed the sense “magical beauty” in the mid-19th century and became especially associated with attractive women from the 1930s.

Borrowed from Scots glamour ("magic, enchantment"), an alteration of grammar. In medieval and early modern imagination, learned grammar could be associated with occult knowledge; the same family also produced gramarye and grimoire. The modern sense shifted from magical illusion to captivating attractiveness.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary