glean

glean · verb, noun¹

1. Old French · derived fromglene
2. Middle English · inherited fromglene“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”
3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ǵʰleh₁-“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”
4. Proto-Celtic · derived from*glanos“clean; clear”
5. Late Latin · derived fromglen(n)are
6. Old French · derived fromglener
7. Middle English · inherited fromglenen“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”
8. English todayglean

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are, the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”). The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above. Cognate with Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”).

glean · noun, verb²

Possibly a variant of clean (“(UK, dialectal; noun) the afterbirth of a cow or sheep; (verb) of a cow or sheep: to bring forth the afterbirth”), possibly from clean (“to remove dirt from an object or place”), referring to an animal’s uterus being cleaned out by the delivery of the afterbirth.

Words from the same roots