glint

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ǵʰley-“to shine”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*glintaną“to gleam, shine”
3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*glantijaną
4. Old Norse · derived from*glenta
5. Middle English · derived fromglenten“to shine, gleam; flash”
6. Scots · borrowed fromglint
7. English todayglint

15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint, from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”), probably from Old Norse *glenta, from Proto-Germanic *glantijaną, causitive of Proto-Germanic *glintaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognate with Danish glente, Swedish glänta, Norwegian Nynorsk gletta (“to peep, look”), Middle High German glinzen; compare also Swedish glinta (“to slip, slide, gleam, shine”), Swedish glimt (“flash, glint, glimpse”), Norwegian Nynorsk glanta, gletta (“to glide, slip”). Reintroduced into literary English by Robert Burns.

Words from the same roots