Jamieson's 1825 supplement to his "Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language" has glamour-gift "the power of enchantment; metaph. applied to female fascination." Jamieson's original edition (1808) looked to Old Norse for the source of the word. Zoëga's Old Icelandic dictionary has glám-sýni "illusion," probably from the same root as gleam.
I would have said there's danger in the illusion of beauty and if one has ever seen the before and after make-up photos of models, actresses, etc., I think there would be agrrement that it is the illusion of beauty that is deceptive.
As for Nicol Williamson, he had a reputation for a volatile temperament and slapped an actor during a curtain call for the Broadway musical Rex, struck a producer during a play tryout and hit a co-star with a sword during a production of I Hate Hamlet, which somewhat reduces the "glamour" of his role in Excalibur.
They say never meet your heroes, and Williamson would certainly fit that classification. I've learned through constant disappointment to never believe the edited version of anything. The real people are rarely as glamourous as the billboard.
English etymology can be both fascinating and frustrating. Some words have clear lineages, while others are murky and diffuse. Glamour is one of those words with a path as straight as a country mile. English especially has an incredibly diverse history, being an amalgam of five languages, plus bits and pieces picked up along the way, include a couple of dozen Malay/Indonesian words like amok. And then you have Mark Twain and O. Henry just making them up.
One thing is for certain -- leaning the origins of words is never dull or uninteresting.
I credit both my parents. My mother was an English teacher, and my father an historian. It takes little imagination to see where I get my etymological bent from. Dear old Dad used to drill me with Greek and Latin root flash cards. I had a deprived childhood.
As for idols, I learned early on to separate the work from the person doing it. Anymore I'm too jaded to be starstruck.
I believe it was Hedy Lamarr who said, "Any girl can be glamourous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid."
And there is the rub. It isn't people who hunger for glamour. It's women. No one buys more useless crap than women who think they have to. And yes, women fall for this "glamour" more than men because they are magical thinkers who never learned to think in mechanical terms. Such women honestly believe that eyeliner makes their eyes look bigger, just as they believe that pantyhose really does keep their legs warmer in the winter. No, dears, those pantyhose don't keep your legs warm and your eyeliner just makes you look like you drew black lines around your eyes.
So a glamour has been cast, but only on those women (and drag queens) who consume such useless crap.
There was a brief time in my younger years when I flirted with feminism. It was brief because I couldn't ignore the evidence that too many (perhaps most?) women spend their lives living in fantasyland, spending hours with their butts parked in front of a mirror while they "play" with their looks instead of spending that time learning a useful skill. Perhaps I should be more generous, but I find it hard to take such women seriously.
That's Hedley. And yes, that is a classic quote, right up there with Spencer Tracey's, “Learn your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.”
I disagree about panty hose though. Back in my biker days, L'eggs kept my gams warm in the winter, and I looked an awful lot like Joe Namath, too. As for making one's eyes look bigger, I find that opening them helps quite a bit.
I am quite lucky that Mrs. FarSide does not wear make-up, except for those rare spiffy events when The Works are de rigueur. However, the bathroom is overrun with lotions, notions and potions. The appearance of youth is the beginning of glamour.
A man who demands that a woman be always dolled up is perhaps not worth keeping around. They also live in fantasyland and will thus not be much of a provider.
I've heard legends of the lake-effect winters, and frankly there's a reason the state is shaped like a mitten. After nearly 20 years of eternal summer, I confess I've gotten a little spoiled. Even the brief and occasionally chilly Houston winters are not missed.
Well, the old memory is somewhat suspect, but I seem to recall those first few years of school between kindergarten and jr. high being called grammar school. I suppose cause that's when one was supposed to learn their letters. Don't recall it being very glamorous though. Thanks for the word lesson Mr. Farside.
If you were lucky enough to be educated under the Trivium, then yes, you have grammar, rhetoric and logic back then. Of course, after learning the history of the word "grammar," one might conclude that grammar school was when the wool was pulled over our eyes. Thank you, my friend.
Ah, there's one I had forgotten. Yes, that was a great performance. As Gwyneth reminded us, he was rather colorful off camera, but you can't argue with his talent.
So I'm riding my Streetglide in July 2011 listening to a man on the radio explain how the universe can speak to you if you can stop the internal conversation long enough to listen. At that moment, for the first time ever, my cigarettes flew out of my shirt pocket and gone into the weeds. As I started to stop and go find them it occurred to me that the universe couldn't be any more clear. When I got home I told my wife that God, the Force, the Universe, whatever you believe in had told me to quit. 15 years smoke free now. If you listen you can hear. The universe speaks volumes to those who learn how to turn off the internal conversation. So I told you that to tell you this: Your 'glamour' essay rang a bell. Between mainstream news, the alternative media, youtube, etc, and 'influencers' I heard the universe speak. Of course I appreciate you taking the time to write this but I sense that the universe talks to you as well. Later, my friend. Stay frosty. And yes, it is painfully obvious now where AI enters the chat.
I don't know that Universe speaks to me, so much as screams into a microphone attached to an amplifiers turned up to 11. It never rains but it pours, as they say. As Ramakrishna so aptly put it, "The mind is like a tree full of chattering monkeys."
After 50 years in theatre, film and television, I've gotten pretty good at seeing through the deceptions, but it's not easy. I always encourage folks to turn off the gizmos and just listen to reality. The world is a much more interesting place when one deals with it on a local and personal scale.
The only reason I follow you is because you're so glamorous.
And I thank you for it! It's a pleasure to have such fine folks lurking about these parts.
Etymology online also has the following to say.
Jamieson's 1825 supplement to his "Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language" has glamour-gift "the power of enchantment; metaph. applied to female fascination." Jamieson's original edition (1808) looked to Old Norse for the source of the word. Zoëga's Old Icelandic dictionary has glám-sýni "illusion," probably from the same root as gleam.
I would have said there's danger in the illusion of beauty and if one has ever seen the before and after make-up photos of models, actresses, etc., I think there would be agrrement that it is the illusion of beauty that is deceptive.
As for Nicol Williamson, he had a reputation for a volatile temperament and slapped an actor during a curtain call for the Broadway musical Rex, struck a producer during a play tryout and hit a co-star with a sword during a production of I Hate Hamlet, which somewhat reduces the "glamour" of his role in Excalibur.
They say never meet your heroes, and Williamson would certainly fit that classification. I've learned through constant disappointment to never believe the edited version of anything. The real people are rarely as glamourous as the billboard.
English etymology can be both fascinating and frustrating. Some words have clear lineages, while others are murky and diffuse. Glamour is one of those words with a path as straight as a country mile. English especially has an incredibly diverse history, being an amalgam of five languages, plus bits and pieces picked up along the way, include a couple of dozen Malay/Indonesian words like amok. And then you have Mark Twain and O. Henry just making them up.
One thing is for certain -- leaning the origins of words is never dull or uninteresting.
My mother gifted me her fascination with the origin of words and phrases and I have never had any idols.
I credit both my parents. My mother was an English teacher, and my father an historian. It takes little imagination to see where I get my etymological bent from. Dear old Dad used to drill me with Greek and Latin root flash cards. I had a deprived childhood.
As for idols, I learned early on to separate the work from the person doing it. Anymore I'm too jaded to be starstruck.
Deprived indeed!
I believe it was Hedy Lamarr who said, "Any girl can be glamourous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid."
And there is the rub. It isn't people who hunger for glamour. It's women. No one buys more useless crap than women who think they have to. And yes, women fall for this "glamour" more than men because they are magical thinkers who never learned to think in mechanical terms. Such women honestly believe that eyeliner makes their eyes look bigger, just as they believe that pantyhose really does keep their legs warmer in the winter. No, dears, those pantyhose don't keep your legs warm and your eyeliner just makes you look like you drew black lines around your eyes.
So a glamour has been cast, but only on those women (and drag queens) who consume such useless crap.
There was a brief time in my younger years when I flirted with feminism. It was brief because I couldn't ignore the evidence that too many (perhaps most?) women spend their lives living in fantasyland, spending hours with their butts parked in front of a mirror while they "play" with their looks instead of spending that time learning a useful skill. Perhaps I should be more generous, but I find it hard to take such women seriously.
Okay... end of rant.
That's Hedley. And yes, that is a classic quote, right up there with Spencer Tracey's, “Learn your lines and don’t bump into the furniture.”
I disagree about panty hose though. Back in my biker days, L'eggs kept my gams warm in the winter, and I looked an awful lot like Joe Namath, too. As for making one's eyes look bigger, I find that opening them helps quite a bit.
I am quite lucky that Mrs. FarSide does not wear make-up, except for those rare spiffy events when The Works are de rigueur. However, the bathroom is overrun with lotions, notions and potions. The appearance of youth is the beginning of glamour.
A man who demands that a woman be always dolled up is perhaps not worth keeping around. They also live in fantasyland and will thus not be much of a provider.
Bet you weren't riding in a Michigan winter! 😉
I'll grant you that, but then if I was in Michigan, I probably wouldn't have been riding a bike in winter. There are hard limits to my insanity.
Even if you're just walking outside in a Michigan winter, you'd have a good pair of longjohns under your jeans, and sometimes two pair.
I've heard legends of the lake-effect winters, and frankly there's a reason the state is shaped like a mitten. After nearly 20 years of eternal summer, I confess I've gotten a little spoiled. Even the brief and occasionally chilly Houston winters are not missed.
That Scottish “glamour” was the first recorded incident, where lipstick was put on a pig.
Ha! Indeed...shortly before they stuffed the gut with cabbage and let it rot for dinner. I must say, though, that the bonny lasses do cast a spell.
I think well of you for this.
Your thunking is well received with gratitude. Let's conjugate that: to think/think(s)/thank/(have) thunk/(is) thinking. Looks good to me.
Well, the old memory is somewhat suspect, but I seem to recall those first few years of school between kindergarten and jr. high being called grammar school. I suppose cause that's when one was supposed to learn their letters. Don't recall it being very glamorous though. Thanks for the word lesson Mr. Farside.
If you were lucky enough to be educated under the Trivium, then yes, you have grammar, rhetoric and logic back then. Of course, after learning the history of the word "grammar," one might conclude that grammar school was when the wool was pulled over our eyes. Thank you, my friend.
Succinctly: The Glamour of Communism , made-up as Sociaism.
And cloaked in Democracy.
To add spice to the flavor: Dumacracy - doomed to affect the lowest common selfish interest.
And empower it...
He who controls language controls the masses.
And it's remarkably easy once you learn how. Just ask Josef Goebbels.
I almost forgot, Nicol Williamson was a great Merlin but my favorite charachter of his was as Little John in Robin and Marion.
Ah, there's one I had forgotten. Yes, that was a great performance. As Gwyneth reminded us, he was rather colorful off camera, but you can't argue with his talent.
So I'm riding my Streetglide in July 2011 listening to a man on the radio explain how the universe can speak to you if you can stop the internal conversation long enough to listen. At that moment, for the first time ever, my cigarettes flew out of my shirt pocket and gone into the weeds. As I started to stop and go find them it occurred to me that the universe couldn't be any more clear. When I got home I told my wife that God, the Force, the Universe, whatever you believe in had told me to quit. 15 years smoke free now. If you listen you can hear. The universe speaks volumes to those who learn how to turn off the internal conversation. So I told you that to tell you this: Your 'glamour' essay rang a bell. Between mainstream news, the alternative media, youtube, etc, and 'influencers' I heard the universe speak. Of course I appreciate you taking the time to write this but I sense that the universe talks to you as well. Later, my friend. Stay frosty. And yes, it is painfully obvious now where AI enters the chat.
I don't know that Universe speaks to me, so much as screams into a microphone attached to an amplifiers turned up to 11. It never rains but it pours, as they say. As Ramakrishna so aptly put it, "The mind is like a tree full of chattering monkeys."
After 50 years in theatre, film and television, I've gotten pretty good at seeing through the deceptions, but it's not easy. I always encourage folks to turn off the gizmos and just listen to reality. The world is a much more interesting place when one deals with it on a local and personal scale.
I still like my smokes, though. :)
If the world was coming to an end my first stop is the tobacco shop.
Amen to that! And the liquor store right after. If I gotta go, I'm doing it with a proper Mai Tai!
My thanks to you, are wrapped in warm appreciation!
Ah, so THAT's the cuddly feeling I keep getting. Thank you kindly for hanging around these parts. You are appreciated.