Etymograph

English

glance

Glance comes from Middle English glenchen ‘of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *weng- ‘to bow, to bend, to arch, to curve’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weng-‘to bow, to bend, to arch, to curve’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500glenchen‘of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592glance

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*weng-‘to bow, to bend, to arch, to curve’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500glenchen‘of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance’
  3. Englishearliest quotation c. 1590–1592glance

Earliest quotation: c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew: “A has a little gald me I confeſſe: /…”

The story

The sense "to look briefly (at something)" is probably due to partial conflation with Middle English glenten (‘to look askance’)—the ancestor of English glint—in the Middle English period. This conflation may also have reinforced the medial -n-.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *weng- ‘to bow, to bend, to arch, to curve’

wink, winch

Another origin of glance

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*gʰlend-root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500glaunce
  3. Englishtodayglance

Today it means

verb To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *weng- / glance

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