glib

English

WOTD – 10 August 2007

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/ɡlɪb/

• Audio(US):

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• Audio(General Australian):

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• Rhymes:-ɪb

Etymology 1

A shortening of eitherEnglishglibbery(“slippery”)or its source,Low Germanglibberig, glibberich(“slippery”)/Dutchglibberig(“slippery”).

Adjective

glib(comparativeglibber,superlativeglibbest)

1. Having areadyflowof words but lacking thought or understanding;superficial;shallow.
   • 2004August 26, Leslie Feinberg, “Survival with Setbacks”, inWorkers World‎^[1]:

     A much more thorough examination of this period is essential, and noglibanswers should be accepted as good coin.

2. (dated)Smoothorslippery.

   a sheet ofglibice

3. Artfully persuasive but insincere in nature;smooth-talking,honey-tongued,silver-tongued.

   aglibtongue; aglibspeech

   • c.1603–1606,William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene i]:

     I want thatgliband oily art, / To speak and purpose not.

4. Snarkyorunseriousin a disrespectful way.
   • 1988December 25, Michael Bronski, “...And They Called It Puppy Love”, inGay Community News,volume16,number24,page 8:

     Its style is both open and arch, never verging onglibcamp but always a little removed, reducing large emotions to small observations and thereby making them all the more effective.

   • 2013October 11, Alexandra Alter, “Literary Giant Obsessed by Movies”, inWall Street Journal‎^[2]:

     When Mr. Franco called Mr. McCarthy and asked why he had written a book about such a repellent character, he wasglib."He said, verbatim, 'I don't know, James, probably some dumb-ass reason,'" Mr. Franco recalled.

Derived terms

• glibly
• glibness

Translations

having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding

• Bulgarian:словоохотлив(bg)(slovoohotliv)
• Catalan:loquaç(ca)
• Czech:povrchní(cs),plynný(cs),lehkovážný,zlehčující,plytký(cs)
• French:désinvolte(fr)
• Galician:larapetasmpl,larapeteiro(gl)m,laretas(gl)mpl,lareto(gl)m,lerchán(gl)m,lercho(gl)m,leriantem,lingoreteiro(gl)m,linguateiro(gl)m,paroleiro(gl)m,papexónm,zarapelo(gl)m,falabarato(gl)m
• German:schwatzhaft(de),beredsam(de)
• Italian:loquace(it),fluente(it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål:glatt(no),littforveltalende,rappmunnet,rapptunget

• Polish:wygadany
• Russian:болтли́вый(ru)(boltlívyj),словоохо́тливый(ru)(slovooxótlivyj)
• Scottish Gaelic:leamh,cabanta
• Turkish:üstünkörü(tr)
• Ukrainian:говіркийm(hovirkyj),меткийm(metkyj)

smooth or slippery

• Bulgarian:гладък(bg)(gladǎk),плъзгав(plǎzgav)
• Catalan:relliscós
• German:glatt(de),rutschig(de),schlüpfrig(de)
• Polish:gładki(pl)
• Russian:гла́дкий(ru)(gládkij)
• Turkish:samimiyetsiz(tr)
• Ukrainian:гладкийm(hladkyj)

artfully persuasive but insincere in nature

• Catalan:llepó
• Czech:vemlouvavý,uhlazený
• German:aalglatt(de),gewandt(de),einschmeichelnd-betrügerisch
• Ingrian:lippiäkeeli
• Japanese:Xảo ngôn lệnh sắc な(kōgenreishoku-na)(attributive)
• Ukrainian:солодкомовнийm(solodkomovnyj),облесливийm(obleslyvyj)

Verb

glib(third-person singular simple presentglibs,present participleglibbing,simple past and past participleglibbed)

1. (transitive)To make smooth or slippery.
   • 1628,Joseph Hal,“Christian Liberty Laid Forth,” inThe Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D.,Volume V, London: Williams & Smith, 1808, p. 366,[3]

     There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue; which, being onceglibbedwith intoxicating liquor, runs wild through heaven and earth; and spares neither him that is God above, nor those which are called gods on earth.

   • 1671,John Milton,“The First Book”, inParadise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes,London:[…]J[ohn]M[acock]for John Starkey[…],→OCLC,page21,lines371–376:

     And, when to all his Angels he propos'd / To draw the proud kingAhabinto fraud, / That he might fall inRamoth,they demurring, / I undertook that office, and the tongues / Of all his flattering Prophetsglibb'dwith lyes / To his destruction, as I had in charge.

   • 1730,Edward Strother,Dr. Radcliffe’s Practical Dispensatory‎^[4],London: C. Rivington, page342:

     They are good internally in Fits of the Stone in the Kidneys, byglibbingthe Ureters, and making even a large Stone pass with ease[…]

   • 1944,Emily Carr,“Gran’s Battle”, inThe House of All Sorts‎^[5]:

     We were having one of our bitterest cold snaps. Wind due north, shrieking over stiff land; two feet of snow, all substancesglibbedwith ice and granite-hard.

Etymology 2

FromIrishglib.

Noun

glib(pluralglibs)

1. (historical)Amassofmattedhairworndown over theeyes,formerly common inIreland.
   • 1596,Edmund Spenser,“Book IV, Canto VIII”, inThe Faerie Queene.[…],London:[…][John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC:

     Whom when she saw in wretched weedes disguiz'd, / With hearyglibdeform'd and meiger face, / Like ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, / She knew him not[…]

   • 1596(date written; published1633),Edmund Spenser,A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande[…],Dublin:[…]Societie of Stationers,[…],→OCLC;republished asA View of the State of Ireland[…](Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin:[…]Society of Stationers,[…]Hibernia Press,[…][b]y John Morrison,1809,→OCLC:

     The Irish have, from the Scythians, mantles and longglibs,which is a thick curled bush of hair hanging down over their eyes, and monstrously disguising them.

   • 1829,Robert Southey,Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society:

     Their wild costume of thegliband mantle.

   • 1855,Charles Kingsley,“Clovelly Court in the Olden Time”, inWestward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight,[…],volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire:Macmillan & Co.,→OCLC,page163:

     But in the dead of njight, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with hisglibover his ugly face, and his skene in his hand.

Etymology 3

Compare Old English and dialectalEnglishlib(“to castrate, geld”),dialectalDanishlive,Low German andOld Dutchlubben.

Verb

glib(third-person singular simple presentglibs,present participleglibbing,simple past and past participleglibbed)

1. (obsolete)Tocastrate;togeld;toemasculate.
   • c.1610–1611(date written),William Shakespeare,“The Winters Tale”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene i]:

     Fourteen they shall not see
     To bring false generations. They are co-heirs;
     And I had ratherglibmyself than they
     Should not produce fair issue.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition ofWebster’s Dictionary,which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for“glib”,inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary,Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.)

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

InheritedfromProto-Slavic*gliba.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):/ɡlîːb/

Noun

glȋbm(Cyrillic spellingгли̑б)

1. mud,mire

Declension

Declension ofglib

	singular	plural
nominative	glȋb	glíbovi
genitive	gliba	glibova
dative	glibu	glibovima
accusative	glib	glibove
vocative	glibe	glibovi
locative	glibu	glibovima
instrumental	glibom	glibovima

Further reading

• “glib”,inHrvatski jezični portal[Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian),2006–2024