glam

n.

WA glaam

‘din, noise of merrymaking, uproar, speech’

(Modern English glam)

Etymology

cp. OIcel glamm (later glamr) ‘noise, tinkling sound’ and Scandinavian cognates including OSw glam ‘noise, loud chatter’, Dan glam ‘noise, clatter, barking of dogs’. The ulterior etymology of the glam- root is unclear: OED calls it ‘probably echoic’, and it has sometimes (see de Vries, Mag.) been related to OIcel gjalla ‘to yell’, gala ‘to crow, sing’ (cp. OE giellan, galan) or hlamma ‘to give a dull, heavy sound’ (i.e. supposing a PGmc *ga-xlam-.

PGmc Ancestor

?*ga-xlam-, ?*glam

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

glamm  ‘noise, tinkling sound’ 
(ONP glamm (sb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Icel glam, glamm, Norw glam, Dan glam, OSw glam, Sw glam

OE Cognate

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

BB1c

Attestation

Attested in ME only in the Gawain-poet and WA (Ashm 44); in MnE dial from Sc. and Som.

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 1426, 1652; Cl 499, 830, 849; Pat 63; WA 5504

PS and McGillivray read glam(m) for MS <glaum> at Gaw 46 (see glaum)

Bibliography

MED glam (n.) , OED glam (n.1) , HTOED , EDD glam (sb.1), Dance glam, Bj. 211, de Vries glam, glamm, Mag. glam, glamm