Etymology

gland

G2L1A1N1D2

Today it means: A specialized cell, group of cells, or organ of endothelial origin in the human or animal body that synthesizes a chemical substance, such as hormones or breast milk, and releases it, often into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland). Full definition →

French glande ← Old French glandre ← Latin glandulae
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

gland · noun1

  1. Latin · derived fromglandulae“throat glands, tonsils”
  2. Old French · derived fromglandre
  3. French · borrowed fromglande
  4. English todaygland

Late 17th century borrowing from French glande, alteration of Old French glandre, from Latin glandulae (“throat glands, tonsils”), plural of glandula (“a little acorn”), from glāns (“an acorn”) + -ula (diminutive nominal suffix).

gland · noun2

  1. Scots · derived fromglam“vice, clamp”
  2. English todaygland

Early 19th century, probably from Scots glam (“vice, clamp”), probably from a variant of clam (“clam; clamp, vise”). Related to clamp.

Gland · proper noun3

  1. Proto-Celtic · derived from*glanos“pure, clear, clean”
  2. Middle French · derived fromglans
  3. English todayGland

From French, from Middle French glans, of Celtic/Gaulish origin, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“pure, clear, clean”). Not related to gland (“gland, acorn”).

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchglandre all →

glanders

Latinglandulae all →

glandular

Proto-Celtic*glanos all →

glean

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.