Etymology
1. 1441, from
glacen "to graze, strike a glancing blow" (c.1300), from O.Fr.
glaichier "to slip, make slippery," from
glace "ice" (see glacial). Sense of "look quickly" (first recorded 1583) infl. by M.E.
glenten "look askance" (see glint).
2. The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenchen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; of a person: to turn quickly aside, dodge”) [and other forms], a blend of:
3. * Old French glacier, glachier, glaichier (“to slide; to slip”) (whence also Middle English glacen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; to glide”)), from glace (“frozen water, ice”) (from Vulgar Latin *glacia, from Latin glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin, + -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); and
4. * Old French guenchir, ganchir (“to avoid; to change direction; to elude, evade”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wankijan (“to move aside; to stagger, sway; to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bend”).
5. The noun is derived from the verb.
6. 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-. See English glint See: Middle English '
glacen', Old French '
guenchir', Middle English '
glenten', English '
glint'.