Etymology: Old English glíw , gléo neuter = Old Norse glý (rare); the word is wanting in the other Germanic languages. The original stem *gliujo- was variously treated in Old English, yielding the forms glíeg- , glíg- (in compounds and oblique cases), glíw (the nominative is found only in glosses, but glíwes , etc. are common in poetry, more rarely gléow- ), and gléo (poetic). From the two latter forms came Middle English glew and gle , of which glew became obsolete in the 16th cent., surviving longest in the northern dialects. (Compare hue n.¹ from original *hiujo-.) In Old English and Middle English the word is chiefly poetic. After the 15th cent. it seems to have been rarely used, and in the 17th cent. is almost entirely absent from literature. Phillips (1706) marks it as obsolete, and Johnson considered it a merely comic word (see 3, quot. 1755 at sense 3aβ. ). It again became common towards the end of the 18th cent., but the cause of its revival is not apparent.

Etymology: Of obscure origin. The northern forms (α and β) are normal variants from an original Middle English glēȝen ; in the midland dialects this was narrowed to glīȝen , whence later gly (compare die v.¹, eye n.¹, fly v.¹, etc.). The verbs gledge v., gleg v. are related as fleg v.¹ to fley v.