English
glebe
Glebe comes from Latin glaeba ‘lump of earth, clod’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglaeba‘lump of earth, clod’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400glebe
- Englishearliest quotation 1791same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglaeba‘lump of earth, clod’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400glebe
- Englishearliest quotation 1791same form
Earliest quotation: 1791, Erasmus Darwin, The Economy of Vegetation: “Admiring glebes their amber ears unfold, / And Labour…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *gel- ‘to form into a ball’
children, child, cold, clean, cloud, chill, cluster, gel, jelly, globe, colt, clout, clot, gelatin, clough, gelato, ganglion, clod, klutz, globus, globulin, 48 more
Today it means
noun Turf; soil; ground; sod.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin glaeba / glebe