glamour

also glam·or (glăm'ər)
n.

1. An air of compelling charm, romance, and excitement, especially when delusively alluring.
2. Archaic. A magic spell; enchantment.

[Scots, magic spell, alteration of GRAMMAR (from the association of learning with magic).]

USAGE NOTE   Many words, such as honor, vapor, and labor, are usually spelled with an -or ending in American English but with an -our ending in British English. The preferred spelling of glamour, however, is -our, making it an exception to the usual American practice. The adjective is more often spelled glamorous in both American and British usage.

View more Literature & Language videos

is spelt -our in British English and either -our or -or in American English. The word is originally Scottish, and was brought into general literary use by Walter Scott about 1830. It is an alteration of the word grammar (or more strictly, of the old form gramarye) with the meaning 'occult learning, magic, necromancy'. It then passed into standard English and meant 'a delusive or alluring charm'; nearly a century later, in the 1930s, it acquired its main current meaning, first in American English and then in British English and elsewhere, relating to the charm or physical allure of a person (usually a woman).

Previous:	gladiolus, glacial, glacier, given, given that
Next:	glance, glimpse, glasses, glassful

also glamor

noun

The power or quality of attracting: allure, allurement, appeal, attraction, attractiveness, call, charisma, charm, draw, enchantment, enticement, fascination, lure, magnetism, witchery. Informal pull. See like/dislike.

n

Definition: beauty; sophisticated style
Antonyms: allure, attractiveness, drab, dullness, plainness, ugliness

from Scots
This word originated in Scotland

Where else would you find glamour but on a windswept Scottish heath? Though you might look elsewhere for glamour today, the Scottish dialect of English is where all other English speakers got the word. Of course the Scots had a more serious meaning for it.

Originally it meant nothing more or less than grammar, the study of the proper form of words and sentences. This was back in the Middle Ages, when only a few clerics and clerks (both words have the same origin) knew how to write. To others, grammar meant something mysterious and magical, as it still does to many who wrestle with the language today. Eventually grammar came to have a secondary meaning of "magic."

In Scots, the word had an l instead of the first r. We find writers from Scotland using this magical glamour in English as early as 1720. Later in the eighteenth century, the poet Robert Burns writes of

And the novelist Sir Walter Scott discussed the magical glamour in his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft (1830).

In the twentieth century, it was apparently American usage that transferred the glamour of magic to the glamour of fashion, personality, and life style. To make the word even more glamorous, Americans retained the British our ending instead of changing it to or as we usually do (in words like color and flavor).

Scots is the distinctive Scottish version of the English language. It has been spoken in the lowlands of Scotland for over a thousand years, almost as long as English English has been spoken in the south. Scots English is now spoken by almost all of Scotland's population of five million. The rest of the English-speaking world has learned from Scots words like feckless (1585), jockey (1670), flunky (1782), rampage (1808), and wow! (1513).

Until recently, the principal language in the highlands of Scotland was Scots Gaelic, a Celtic language and close relative of Irish and Welsh. About 90,000 people still speak Scots Gaelic. The several dozen imports into English from that language include such well-known words as loch (1375), clan (1425), glen (1489), plaid (1512), slogan (1513), spunk (1582), and trousers (1613).

---

Quotes:

"A blond in a red dress can do without introductions -- but not without a bodyguard." - Rona Jaffe

"It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window." - Raymond Chandler

"Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion." - John Berger

See words rhyming with "glamor."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Glamour.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - glamour, glans, romantisk skær, fortryllelse, trylleri

Nederlands (Dutch)
aantrekkelijkheid, glamour, betoveren, zeer aantrekkelijk maken

Français (French)
n. - fascination, prestige, éclat

Deutsch (German)
n. - Glanz, Ausstrahlung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - θέλγητρο, αίγλη, ακτινοβολία

Italiano (Italian)
fascino

Português (Portuguese)
n. - glamour (m), fascinação (f), magia (f)

Русский (Russian)
очарование, шик, очаровывать, наводить шик

Español (Spanish)
n. - encanto, fascinación, embeleso, glamour

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - glamour

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
迷人的美, 魔法

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 迷人的美, 魔法

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 매력

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 魅力, 性的魅力

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فتنه, سحر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כוח משיכה, זוהר, קסם‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.