glint

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a momentary flash of light
  2. noun a spatially localized brightness
  3. verb be shiny, as if wet

Etymology

15th century. Borrowed from Scots glint, from Middle English glenten (“to shine, gleam; flash”), probably from Old Norse *glenta, from Proto-Germanic *glantijaną, causitive of Proto-Germanic *glintaną (“to gleam, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to shine”). Cognate with Danish glente, Swedish glänta, Norwegian Nynorsk gletta (“to peep, look”), Middle High German glinzen; compare also Swedish glinta (“to slip, slide, gleam, shine”), Swedish glimt (“flash, glint, glimpse”), Norwegian Nynorsk glanta, gletta (“to glide, slip”). Reintroduced into literary English by Robert Burns.

In classic literature

Synonyms

flicker, spark

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