Word of the Day

: September 24, 2018

glade

noun GLAYD

What It Means

: an open space surrounded by woods

glade in Context

"Whenever they got a glimpse of the sun in an open glade they seemed unaccountably to have veered eastwards." — J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, 1954

"Park on the side of the road near the sign where possible, but try to avoid going too far off into the mud. Walk past the sign and across a glade before descending into the hollow." — James Baughn, The Southeast Missourian, 5 Apr. 2018

Did You Know?

We know that glade has been with us since at least the early 1500s, though the word's origins remain a bit of a mystery. Glade, which originally was often used not just to indicate a clearing in the woods but one which was also filled with sunlight, may come from the adjective glad. In Middle English, glad also meant "shining," a meaning that goes back to the word's Old English ancestor, glæd. Glæd is akin to Old High German glat ("shining, smooth") and Old Norse glathr ("sunny"). It may also be a relative of Old English geolu, the ancestor of the modern English word yellow.