Etymology
A difficult word which could apparently denote open patches of ground, but also refer to bright areas of sky (or cloud). Some attempts have been made at an etymology: (1) The most plausible approach is to regard ME
glode as etymologically identical to PDE
glade, the etymology of which is obscure, but almost always connected with the PGmc adj.
*glaða- 'shining' (Heid.) as in OE
glæd ‘bright, shining (mainly in poetry);
glad, cheerful, joyous’ (cp. OFris
gled ‘smooth’, OS
gladmōd ‘happy’, OHG
glat ‘clear, light’, OIcel
glaðr ‘glad, bright (inc. of weather)’). The sense development from ‘sunny place’ to ‘clearing’, can be compared to Sw dial.
glänna ‘sunny spot, open place in a wood’; and still closer Sw
glad, Norw
glada ‘an open space in a forest’, derived on
*glaða- (see Torp, Hellquist). There has been the occasional attempt to derive PDE
glade, ME
glade directly from such a Scandinavian word (so Torp, Skeat (EDEL1 s.v. glade)), but unless sound-substitution has been at work, a ME loan of ON
*glað- ought to have a root-final fricative, and if PDE
glade and ME
glode are indeed the same word, then we need to look for an immediate ancestor with a long /ɑ:/. Most recent authorities have therefore looked to an unrecorded OE
*glāda (
OED) or
*glād (
MED,
EPNE) ‘bright place’, i.e. in toponyms ‘a glade, an open space in a forest’; in that case,
glode must represent the normal Midland/Southern development (with /ɑ:/ > /ɔ:/), and PDE
glade a (literary) northernism (see EPNE). A PGmc
*glaið- is not otherwise attested, but again it has usually been connected with the adj.
*glaða-, as an Ablaut variant on the same root. (2) Gollancz (Pearl 79n and glossary, cross-referred to in GDS 2181n) explains
glode as a ‘variant’ of PDE
glade and, given its apparent sense in
Pe (bright clouds), looks for an origin in (or influence from?) Scandinavian words with similar meanings, notably Norw
glott ‘an opening, a clear spot among clouds’ and the Shetland (Norn) words
gloderek ‘a large dark cloud with whitish top, through which the sun shines’,
gloderet,
glodere (adj.) ‘(of the air), filled with whitish clouds, the sun shining through’,
glod(er) ‘hot and sudden sunshine between showers’ (cited from Jakobsen 1897), which he too relates ultimately to the root of PDE
glad. While some input from the VAN reflexes of words such as these is perhaps possible (esp. in terms of sense), their similarities to ME
glode may be merely superficial (see further McGee 333–4, Dance). (3) Gollancz (Pearl) makes a further comparison to OE <glade< (in the phrase ‘sunne gæþ to glade’), which has not otherwise been connected with PDE
glade or ME
glode. It is recorded just once in
DOE from the 13c.
BenRW, with the meaning ‘setting; of the sun: gan to glade “to set”’ and then from Trevisa on. Loan from ON (cp. OIcel
sólar-glaðan ‘sunset’, Norw dial
glada, Sw dial
gladas,
gla(d)na ‘to set (of the sun)’ etc.) has been suggested (Bj.,
EDD,
OED,
MED), but SPS expresses doubt and a direct loan from ON
glað- ought to result in an ME word in /d/ (unless there has been sound-substitution). Regardless, OE
glade is not a match for the
*glād needed to produce ME
glode, since (contrary to
DOE’s mark-up) the uniform spellings <a> of its ME and early MnE reflexes require an OE short /ɑ/ here.
PGmc Ancestor
(1) *glaið-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
sólar-glaðan ‘sunset’
(ONP sólar-glaðan (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
(2) Norw glott, Shetl gloderek, gloderet, glodere, glod(er); (3) Norw dial glada, Sw dial gladas, gla(d)na
OE Cognate
(1) *glād(a) ‘bright place’; (3) glad-
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
DD1bc