glitten
verbEtymology From Middle English glitenen, from Old English glitnian, perhaps from Proto-Germanic *glitinōną, from a root cognate with Old Norse glitra + Proto-Germanic *-inōną. Ultimately from *ǵʰel- (“to shine, shimmer, glow”). Related to Old English glisnian (“to glisten”), Old English glīdan (“to glide”). Largely displaced by glitter.
1
Archaic to glisten, to reflect, to shimmer.
- At one of the river landings I passed, there was something white glittening in the moonlight.1880, George Chittenden Benham, A Year of Wreck: A True Story, by a Victim, page 439:
- Oh, yes, there were a hundredfold more beggars and swaggerers among the docks than upon the granite mount, but there was too much diversion to heed the tricks of sharpers in the crush of the myriad craft and the throngs of sailors on duty on the merchantmen, the hordes of poor panting human toilers loading and unloading the trading vessels locked in the basins, and the care-free troops of seamen off duty, with full pockets and light hearts, whose gold was soon to vanish in the seduction of the glittening casinos and their black-eyed sweethearts.1881, Annie S. Wolf, Pictures and Portraits of Foreign Travel, page 224:
3 more examples
- Presently a purple curtain that hung between two massive pillars, was withdrawn, and two female slaves, whose dark limbs, glittened with bracelets of gold, appeared in the hall, holding torches in their hands.1854, George Lippard, The Nazarene; Or, The Last of the Washingtons:
- And then he ponders, in his trance, - On Mary's love-inspiring glance, On Chloe's eye of glittening fire, And Laura's look of fond desire.1865, Derwent Coleridge, The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed, page 13:
- Glete, gleit, vb, to glitter. Douglas, I, 33; II, 88, 16; Montg. C. and S., 1288; Dunbar, G. T., 66, O. N. glita, to glitter, Dan. glitte, Cp. Shetland glid, a glittering object. O. E. glitnian > M. E. glitenien, as O. E. glisnian > M. E. glistnian, N. Eng. glisten. The M. E. glitenian (N. Eng. *glitten) was replaced by the Scand. glitter.c. 1900, George Tobias Flom, Scandinavian Influence on Southern Lowland Scotch: