glean

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English

WOTD – 12 January 2025

Pronunciation

Jean-François Millet, Des glaneuses (The Gleaners; 1857).[n 1] It depicts women gleaning in a field.

Etymology 1

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”),[1] from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are,[2] the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”).

The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”),[3] from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above.[4]

cognates

Verb

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.
      Synonym: lease
    2. To collect fruit, grain, or other produce from (a field, an orchard, etc.), after the main gathering or harvest.
    3. (figurative)
      1. To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.
        Synonyms: extract, (of information) learn, wring
        • 1634, T H, “A Discourse and Proofe that Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd First Found Out that Continent Now Call’d America”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, , London: William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 224:
          [Ferdinand] Magellan ſoone after ſailes yet more South, and paſſes that Fretum or ſtrait, vvith more reaſon called Magellan, a hundred others haue ſince that gleaned ſeueral additions of Titles and nevv names their diſtributed.
        • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of the Improvement of Our Knowledge”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. , London: Eliz Holt, for Thomas Basset, , →OCLC, book II, § 12, page 116:
          In the Knovvledge of Bodies, vve muſt be content to glean vvhat vve can from particular Experiments, ſince vve cannot from a Diſcovery of their real Eſſences, graſp at a time vvhole Sheaves; and in Bundles, comprehend the Nature and Properties of vvhole Species together.
        • 1705, J Addison, “Towns within the Neighbourhood of Rome”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, pages 375–376:
          It is entertaining to obſerve hovv the ſeveral little Springs and Rills, that break out of the Sides of the Mountain, are glean'd up, and convey'd thro' little cover'd Channels into the main Hollovv of the Aqueduct.
        • 1729 (date written), Sciblerus Secundus [pseudonym; Henry Fielding], The Author’s Farce; and The Pleasures of the Town. , London: J. Roberts, , published 1730, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 40:
          By Jay'd! ay, that's another Excellence of the Don's; he does not only glean up all the Bad VVord of other Authors, but makes nevv Bad VVords of his ovvn.
        • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, ; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, , →OCLC, stanza LXIX, page 95:
          Nor did he pass unmov'd the gentle scene, / For many a joy could he from Night's soft presence glean.
        • 1845 December, James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis”, in Poems, revised edition, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, published 1849, →OCLC, page 60:
          Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn, / While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return / To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.
        • 1877, William Morris, “Of the Forging of the Sword that is Called the Wrath of Sigurd”, in The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, London: Ellis and White, , →OCLC, book II (Regin), page 116:
          The shards, the shards of the sword, that thou gleanedst for my sake / In the night on the field of slaughter, in the tide when my father fell, / Hast thou kept them through sorrow and joyance? has thou warded them trusty and well? / Where hast thou laid them, my mother?
        • 1912, Edith Oland, Warner Oland, “Biographical Note”, in Edith and Warner Oland, transl., Three Plays by August Strindberg: Countess Julie, The Outlaw, the Stronger (International Pocket Library; 36), Boston, Mass.: International Pocket Library, →OCLC, page xi:
          [August] Strindberg went to Stockholm, where for a few months he gleaned a living from newspaper work; but in the summer he went to a remote island in Bothnia Bay, where in his twenty-third year he wrote his great historical drama, Master Olof.
        • 2011 December 8, “Iran Shows Film of Captured US Drone”, in BBC News‎, archived from the original on 2024-01-20:
          He [Amir Ali Hajizadeh] said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.
      2. To take away (someone's) possessions; to strip (someone) bare.
      3. (obsolete) To collect or gather (things) into one mass.
      4. (obsolete, military) To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.
    2. (zoology) Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking prey, mainly arthropods such as insects, from various places.
Conjugation
Conjugation of glean
infinitive (to) glean
present tense past tense
1st-person singular glean gleaned
2nd-person singular glean, gleanest† gleaned, gleanedst†
3rd-person singular gleans, gleaneth† gleaned
plural glean
subjunctive glean gleaned
imperative glean —
participles gleaning gleaned

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
Translations

Noun

glean (plural gleans)

  1. (obsolete except UK, dialectal) A collection of something made by gleaning.
    • 1654, Thomas Fuller, “A Comment on Ruth. Motive.”, in Two Sermons: , London: G. and H. Eversden, , →OCLC, page 153:
      Even the greateſt, in reſpect of God, is but a gleaner. God, he is the Maſter of the Harveſt; all Gifts and Graces they are his, in an infinite meaſure; and every godly man, more or leſſe, gleanes from him. Abraham gleaned a great gleane of Faith; Moſes, of Meekneſſe; […]
      A figurative use.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 130, lines 264–267:
      But late at Night, vvith vveary Pinions come / The lab'ring Youth, and heavy laden home. / Plains, Meads, and Orchards all the day he plies, / The gleans of yellovv Thime diſtend his Thighs: […]
      A figurative use.

Etymology 2

Possibly a variant of clean (“(UK, dialectal; noun) the afterbirth of a cow or sheep; (verb) of a cow or sheep: to bring forth the afterbirth”),[5] possibly from clean (“to remove dirt from an object or place”),[6] referring to an animal’s uterus being cleaned out by the delivery of the afterbirth.

Noun

glean (plural gleans)

  1. (obsolete) The afterbirth or placenta of an animal, especially a cow or sheep.
    Synonyms: (UK, dialectal) clean, cleaning

Verb

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) Of an animal, especially a cow or sheep: to deliver its afterbirth or placenta.
    Synonym: (UK, dialectal) clean
    • 1744, William Ellis, “Of Bulls, Cows, and Calves”, in The Modern Husbandman, or, The Practice of Farming, volume II (Containing, the Months of April, May, and June), London: T Osborne, , and M Cooper , →OCLC, page 150:
      To make a Covv glean vvell, and keep her in Health aftervvards.— […] And as it is a Cuſtom vvith ſome to give all their Covvs a cleanſing Drink after Calving, I recommend this to be a good one for that Purpoſe.— […] A fourth is, to boil a Quart of ground Malt in tvvo Quarts of Ale, and give all vvarm. A certain Perſon gave this laſt to a Covv, vvhich, on the third Day after Calving, had not gleaned; but in five Days after it came avvay vvhole.

Notes

  1. ^ From the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.

References

  1. ^ “glēnen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “glean, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “glean, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “glēne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “glean, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  5. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1898), “CLEAN, v. (and sb.)”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volume I (A–C), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G P Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 629, column 1; compare Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GLEAN, sb.3 and v.2”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: , volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, , publisher to the English Dialect Society, ; New York, N.Y.: G P Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 637, column 1.
  6. ^ “† glean, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023; “† glean, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023.

Further reading

Anagrams

Manx

Noun

glean m

  1. Eclipsed form of clean.

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
clean chlean glean
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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