Glamour, enchantment, witchcraft, fascination; once supposed to be from the Gaelic glac, to seize, to lay hold of, to fascinate; and mor, great; whence great fascination, or magic not to be resisted. Lord Neaves thought the word was a corruption of grammar, in which magic was once supposed to reside. This word, once peculiar to the Scotch, has within the present century been adopted by English writers both of prose and verse, and has become familiar in the conversation of educated people. It signifies the kind of halo, fascination, and magical charm that a person or thing receives from the imagination; the high and fanciful reputation which the French language expresses by prestige, a word which has also striven to naturalise itself in English. Its etymology has scarcely been attempted by English philologists, some few of whom, however, have discovered, as they think, a kindred origin for it in clamor, from the Latin clamare, to cry out, or make a great noise. It is possible that this idea lies in reality at the root of the poetical word glamour, in its signification of a glorified repute; repute itself being the outward manifestation of the popular belief in the excellence of the person or thing spoken of, and which would not be known unless for the spoken opinion or voice of the multitude, which gives and extends fame and glory.

In the Gaelic and British languages, fuaim signifies noise, sound, recalling the classical embodying of Fame as an angel blowing a trumpet, making a loud sound ; and gloir signifies praise loudly expressed, and therefore glory. In like manner, glamour may resolve itself into the two Gaelic words, glaodh, pronounced glao, a shout, and mor, great, whence glao-mor or glamour, a great or loud cry or shout, attesting the applause and approbation of those who raise it. Stormonth, the latest etymologist who has attempted to explain the word, adopts the etymology that found favour with Jamieson, and derives it from glimmer or glitter, "a false lustre, a charm on the eyes, making them see things different from what they are." This etymology is plausible, and will possibly be accepted by all to whom the Gaelic derivation has not been offered for consideration; but the Gaelic, supported as it is by the primitive but highly philosophic ideas that gave rise to the simple but now grandiose words of "fame" and "glory," merits the attention and study of all students who love to trace words to their origin, and endeavour by their means to sound the depths of human intelligence in the infancy of society and of language.

And one short spell therein he read,
It had much glamour might,
Could make a lady seem a knight.
The cobweb on a dungeon wall
Seem tapestry in a lordly hall,

—Scott: The Lay of the Last Minstrel.


As soon as they saw her weel-faur'd face,
They cast their glamour o'er her.

—Johnnie Faa, the Gipsie Laddie.

Ye gipsy gang that deal in glamour.
And you, deep read in Hell's black grammar,
Warlocks and witches.

—Burns : On Captain Grose.

This Scottish word has been admitted into some recent English
dictionaries. Mr. Wedgwood seems to think it is akin to glimmer. The fascination of the eye is exemplified in Coleridge's Ancient Mariner:—

He holds him with his glittering eye.
The wedding-guest stood still.
And listens like a three-year child—
The mariner hath his will.