glamour
pronunciation
How to pronounce glamour in British English:
UK [ˈɡlæmə(r)]
How to pronounce glamour in American English:
US [ˈɡlæmər]
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- Noun:
- alluring beauty or charm (often with sex-appeal)
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- Verb:
- cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something
Word Origin
- glamour
- glamour: [18] Unlikely as it may seem, glamour is ultimately the same word as grammar. This seems to have been used in the Middle Ages for ‘learning’ in general, and hence, by superstitious association, for ‘magic’ (there is no actual record of this, but the related gramarye was employed in that sense). Scottish English had the form glamour for grammar (l is phonetically close to r, and the two are liable to change places), used for ‘enchantment’, or a ‘spell’, for whose introduction to general English Sir Walter Scott was largely responsible.The literal sense ‘enchanted’ has now slipped into disuse, gradually replaced since the early 19th century by ‘delusive charm’, and latterly ‘fashionable attractiveness’.=> grammar
- glamour (n.)
- 1720, Scottish, "magic, enchantment" (especially in phrase to cast the glamor), a variant of Scottish gramarye "magic, enchantment, spell," said to be an alteration of English grammar (q.v.) in a specialized use of that word's medieval sense of "any sort of scholarship, especially occult learning," the latter sense attested from c. 1500 in English but said to have been more common in Medieval Latin. Popularized in English by the writings of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). Sense of "magical beauty, alluring charm" first recorded 1840. As that quality of attractiveness especially associated with Hollywood, high-fashion, celebrity, etc., by 1939. Jamieson's 1825 supplement to his "Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language" has glamour-gift "the power of enchantment; metaph. applied to female fascination." Jamieson's original edition (1808) looked to Old Norse for the source of the word. Zoëga's Old Icelandic dictionary has glám-sýni "illusion," probably from the same root as gleam.
- glamour (v.)
- 1814, "to enchant, charm, bewitch," from glamour (n.). Related: Glamoured; glamouring.
Example
- 1. And it possessed all the glamour of a souped-up lawnmower .
- 2. Inside every woman is a daring , bright , bold glamour girl .
- 3. For telecoms , the glamour and infamy were followed by mediocrity .
- 4. The magical glamour of a mecca or a rome is vital to such a movement .
- 5. Meanwhile , the ginza store may add a bit of badly needed glamour .