Gleason

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A family name borne by various people, including the American comedian Jackie Gleason ; a scale used by pathologists to grade how aggressive prostate cancer tissue appears
2. An Irish-derived surname shared by several notable public figures ; a pathology scoring method that rates the severity of prostate tumours under the microscope
3. A surname carried by a number of famous people ; a diagnostic rating that doctors use to judge how abnormal prostate cancer cells look and how likely they are to spread

Etymology: Gleason is a surname rather than a common word, and its roots lie in Ireland. It is a reduced anglicized form of the Irish "Ó Glasáin," meaning "descendant of Glasán." The personal name Glasán is a diminutive of "glas," an Irish adjective covering shades of green, blue, and grey, so the family name originally pointed back to an ancestor whose name was a small form of a colour word. The "Ó" in the Irish original is the mark of descent, roughly "grandson of" or "descendant of," and it was common in Irish surnames. Over centuries, the spelling and sound were worn down into the English-friendly form seen today, where the opening vowel and the consonant clusters of the Irish name were simplified. The result is a name that still carries a faint trace of Gaelic colour vocabulary beneath its English spelling.