Etymology

glen

G2L1E1N1

Today it means: A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale. Full definition →

Middle English glen ← Irish gleann ← Scottish Gaelic gleann
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The story

  1. substrate · derived from
  2. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*glend-“shore”
  3. Proto-Celtic · derived from*glendos“valley”
  4. Scottish Gaelic · derived fromgleann
  5. Irish · derived fromgleann
  6. Middle English · inherited fromglen
  7. English todayglen

From Middle English glen, borrowed from Irish gleann and Scottish Gaelic gleann, Old and Middle Irish glend, glenn (“mountain valley”), from Proto-Celtic *glendos (“valley”), hypothetically from Proto-Indo-European *glend- (“shore”) but the word may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European substrate language. Compare Manx glion, Welsh glyn. Doublet of glyn.

Words from the same roots

Irishgleann all →

Glynn

Scottish Gaelicgleann all →

Glendenning

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.