Songs From The Mouth Of The River

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]

So, which is the proper word to use in any given situation? The answer is both. While glamour and grammar may seem like opposing forces, they actually work together to create effective communication. A well-crafted sentence can be both grammatically correct and glamorous, using language to captivate and persuade.

Are you more drawn to glamour or grammar? These two words may seem unrelated, but they have a lot in common. Both have a certain allure and power, but in different ways.

When it comes to language, glamour refers to the captivating and enchanting aspects of words and communication. It’s the art of using language to create an emotional response or impression. Grammar, on the other hand, is the set of rules and guidelines that govern the structure and usage of language. It’s the science of language that ensures clarity and precision.

[Douglas Mercer]

glamour (n.)

1715, glamer, Scottish, "magic, enchantment" (especially in phrase to cast the glamour), a variant of Scottish gramarye "magic, enchantment, spell," said to be an alteration of English grammar (q.v.) in a specialized use of that word's medieval sense of "any sort of scholarship, especially occult learning," the latter sense attested from c. 1500 in English but said to have been more common in Medieval Latin.

It was popularized in English by the writings of Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). The sense of "magical beauty, alluring charm" is recorded by 1840. As that quality of attractiveness especially associated with Hollywood, high-fashion, celebrity, etc., by 1939.

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.

1814, "to enchant, charm, bewitch," from glamour (n.). Related: Glamoured; glamouring.

late 14c., "Latin grammar, rules of Latin," from Old French gramaire "grammar; learning," especially Latin and philology, also "(magic) incantation, spells, mumbo-jumbo" (12c., Modern French grammaire), an "irregular semi-popular adoption" [OED, 2nd ed. 1989] of Latin grammatica "grammar, philology," perhaps via an unrecorded Medieval Latin form *grammaria.

The classical Latin word is from Greek grammatike (tekhnē) "(art) of letters," referring both to philology and to literature in the broadest sense, fem. of grammatikos (adj.) "pertaining to or versed in letters or learning," from gramma "letter" (see -gram). An Old English gloss of it was stæfcræft (see staff (n.)).

A much broader word in Latin and Greek; restriction of the meaning to "systematic account of the rules and usages of language" is a post-classical development.

Until 16c. limited to Latin; in reference to English usage by late 16c., thence "rules of a language to which speakers and writers must conform" (1580s). The meaning "a treatise on grammar" is from 1520s.

For the "magic" sense, compare gramary. The evolution is characteristic of the Dark Ages: "learning in general, knowledge peculiar to the learned classes," which included astrology and magic; hence the secondary meaning of "occult knowledge" (late 15c. in English), which evolved in Scottish into glamour (q.v.).

A grammar-school (late 14c.) originally was a school for learning Latin, which was begun by memorizing the grammar. In U.S. (1842) the term was put to use in the graded system for a school between primary and secondary where English grammar is one of the subjects taught.

The word is attested earlier in surnames (late 12c.) such as Robertus Gramaticus, Richard le Gramarie, whence the modern surname Grammer.

Let us let language speak for itself, language which is older than time, and which time worships: the word grammar is the root of the word glamour: a radiant splendor.

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]

[Douglas Mercer]