Sunday, May 15, 2011

Glamour

Glamour \GLAM-er\ , noun;
1. The quality of fascinating, alluring, or attracting, especially by a combination of charm and good looks
2. Excitement, adventure, and unusual activity
3. Magic or enchantment; spell; witchery
adjective;
1. Suggestive or full of glamour; glamourous

Glamour is taken from Scottish and was first attested in English in 1720. It is a variant of Scottish gramarye ("magic, enchantment, spell"), which is an alteration of English grammar. Gramarye dates to the early 14th century from Old French gramaire ("learning") and replaced the Old English word stæfcræft. The Old French word comes from Latin grammatica ("grammar, magic incantation, spells, mumbo-jumbo" and "irregular semi-popular adoption"), which was taken from Greek grammatike tekhne ("art of letters"). The Greek phrase could be used in the sense of philology (the study of historical written language) and literature, and derives from the same source as -graphy (graphein, "to draw or write").

The form grammar evolved by the late 14th century, but its modern definition ("rules of language") is a post-classical development. Until the 16th century that type of language learning was restricted to Latin, so Middle English gramarye evolved into "learning in general, knowledge peculiar to the learned classes." At the time this included astrology and magic, which is where the meaning of "occult knowledge" and the Scottish form glamour come from.

Grammar school dates to the late 14th century, but it was originally "a school in which the learned languages are grammatically taught". It became "a school between primary and secondary where English grammar is taught" around 1842 in the United States.

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