Glent

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Archaic past tense of glance, describing something that flicked or darted quickly past without stopping
2. Described a brief, swift movement or flash of light that passed by in an instant
3. Used in older English to mark a quick, sideways flight or glimmer that had already gone by

Etymology: "Glent" is the older form of "glint", and the sequence runs the opposite way to what a reader might expect: the modern word is the later one, and the older form survives in Scots. Middle English had "glenten", meaning to shine or flash, probably from Old Norse "glenta", a causative verb built on a Germanic root meaning to gleam. Scots kept the sound alive as "glent", and English borrowed the word back in the 15th century as "glint". The word then nearly vanished from literary English before Robert Burns brought it back. The source suggests the Scots "glent" survived as a variant of "glint" and that Burns reintroduced the word into literary English, which is why the form now reads as archaic. Its close relatives in Scandinavian languages carry the same sense of a quick flash or a slipping gleam, such as Swedish "glimt", meaning a flash or glimpse.

Synonyms: glint, gleam, glimmer