glower

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 29 December 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29, 2023 is:

glower • \GLOUR\ • verb

To glower is to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger.

// Kelly glowered at me after I sided with Brenda in their dispute about the chores.

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Examples:

"As their laughter echoed down the hallway, stern faces glowered from old black-and-white portraits in gilded frames." — Hailey Branson-Potts, The Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2023

Did you know?

We send this word, glower, out to the glaring grumps, the scowling scoundrels, and the pouting pessimists of the world. Its gloomy roots grow in Scotland, where glower (or glowren, to use the older Scottish form of the word) has been used since the late Middle Ages. Originally, the word meant simply "to look intently" or "to stare in amazement," but by the late 1700s, glowering stares were being associated with anger instead of astonishment. We can offer no explanation for this semantic development, but we will submit that in its evolved form it reminds us of an older and unrelated English word: lower (it rhymes with flower) means "to frown or look sullen."

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 29th.
0:11.3	Today's word is Glower, spelled GL-O-W-E-R,
0:15.8	Glower is a verb.
0:17.2	To Glower is to look or stare with sullen annoyance or anger.
0:21.6	Here's the word used in a sentence from the L.A. Times by
0:24.4	Haley Branson Potts. As their laughter echoed down the hallway, stern faces
0:29.2	glowered from the old black and white portraits in gilded frames.
0:34.6	We send this word, Glower, out to the glaring grumps, the scowling scoundrels, and the
0:40.5	pouting pessimists of the world.
0:43.0	Its gloomy roots grow in Scotland, where Glower has been used since the late Middle Ages.
0:48.0	Originally, the word meant simply to look intently or to stare in amazement. But by the late 1700s,
0:55.3	glowering stairs were being associated with anger instead of astonishment.
0:59.2	We can offer no explanation for this semantic development, but we will submit that in its
1:05.3	evolved form, it reminds us of an older unrelated English word, Lauer, which means to
1:12.4	frown or look sullen.
1:15.6	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:18.6	Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups.

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