Etymologies

BY Emah Fox

gold (gohld)

n. precious yellow metallic element, malleable & corrosion-resistant; money, wealth; something consisting of, likened to or the colour of gold; first prize; 50th event of a series; record selling over 500,000 copies

C pre 900 ME OE ‘gold’ fr PGmc ‘gulth’ fr PIE base ‘ghel/ghol’ (yellow, green)

glitter (gli t er)

v. to sparkle with reflected light; to be brilliantly, often deceptively attractive. n. sparkling lustre; showy splendour; small glittering ornaments

fr ME ‘glitera’ (to sparkle) fr ONorse ‘glitra’ fr PGmc ‘glit’ (bright, shining) fr PIE ‘ghlei’ (to shine)

‘Glitter Rock’ appeared 1972, ‘Glitterati’ a play on ‘literati’ in 1956. ‘Gold-digger’ (one who pursues others for money) c1915.

“Gold is worse poison to a man’s soul, doing more murders in this loathsome world, than any drug.”
– William Shakespeare

“Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.”
– Samuel Johnson

“Sometimes glass glitters more than diamonds because it has more to prove.”
– Terry Pratchett

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
– J R R Tolkien

“Lost, lost the man who mindeth the minstrelsy; Since still, in sandy, glittering pleasances, Cold, strong fruits, gem-like but quite in-Edible, flatter and wholly starve him.”
– Robert Louis Stevenson

“You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.”
– Anon