glib

glib

English

WOTD – 10 August 2007

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡlɪb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪb

Etymology 1

A shortening of either English glibbery (“slippery”) or its source, Low German glibberig, glibberich (“slippery”) / Dutch glibberig (“slippery”).

Adjective

glib (comparative glibber, superlative glibbest)

1. Having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.
2. (dated) Smooth or slippery.

   a sheet of glib ice

3. Artfully persuasive but insincere in nature; smooth-talking, honey-tongued, silver-tongued.

   a glib tongue; a glib speech

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     I want that glib and oily art, / To speak and purpose not.

4. (US) Snarky or unserious in a disrespectful way.
   • 2014 12 February, Barack Obama, letter to Ann Collins Johns, quoted in Juliet Eilperin (2014-02-18), “Obama apologizes to art historian for public quip”, in Washington Post‎:

     Let me apologize for my off-the-cuff remarks. I was making a point about the jobs market, not the value of art history. [...] So please pass on my apology for the glib remark to the entire department, and understand that I was trying to encourage young people who may not be predisposed to a four year college experience to be open to technical training that can lead them to an honorable career.

Derived terms

• glibly
• glibness

Translations

having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding

Bulgarian: словоохотлив (bg) (slovoohotliv) Catalan: loquaç (ca) French: désinvolte (fr) Galician: larapetas m pl, larapeteiro (gl) m, laretas (gl) m pl, lareto (gl) m, lerchán (gl) m, lercho (gl) m, leriante m, lingoreteiro (gl) m, linguateiro (gl) m, paroleiro (gl) m, papexón m, zarapelo (gl) m, falabarato (gl) m German: schwatzhaft (de), beredsam (de) Italian: loquace (it), fluente (it) Norwegian: Bokmål: glatt (no), litt for veltalende, rappmunnet, rapptunget Russian: болтливый (ru) (boltlivyj), словоохотливый (ru) (slovooxotlivyj) Scottish Gaelic: leamh, cabanta Turkish: üstünkörü (tr) Ukrainian: говіркий m (hovirkyj), меткий m (metkyj)

smooth or slippery

Bulgarian: гладък (bg) (gladǎk), плъзгав (plǎzgav) Catalan: relliscós German: glatt (de), rutschig (de), schlüpfrig (de) Russian: гладкий (ru) (gladkij) Turkish: samimiyetsiz (tr) Ukrainian: гладкий m (hladkyj)

artfully persuasive but insincere in nature

Catalan: llepó German: aalglatt (de), gewandt (de), einschmeichelnd-betrügerisch Japanese: 巧言令色な (kōgenreishoku-na) (attributive) Ukrainian: солодкомовний m (solodkomovnyj), облесливий m (obleslyvyj)

Verb

glib (third-person singular simple present glibs, present participle glibbing, simple past and past participle glibbed)

1. (transitive) To make smooth or slippery.
   • 1628, Joseph Hal, “Christian Liberty Laid Forth,” in The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D., Volume V, London: Williams & Smith, 1808, p. 366,

     There is a drunken liberty of the Tongue; which, being once glibbed with intoxicating liquor, runs wild through heaven and earth; and spares neither him that is God above, nor those which are called gods on earth.

   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, lines 371–376, page 21:

     And, when to all his Angels he propos'd / To draw the proud king Ahab into fraud, / That he might fall in Ramoth, they demurring, / I undertook that office, and the tongues / Of all his flattering Prophets glibb'd with lyes / To his destruction, as I had in charge.

   • 1730, Edward Strother, Dr. Radcliffe’s Practical Dispensatory, London: C. Rivington, p. 342,

     They are good internally in Fits of the Stone in the Kidneys, by glibbing the Ureters, and making even a large Stone pass with ease […]

   • 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, “Gran’s Battle,”

     We were having one of our bitterest cold snaps. Wind due north, shrieking over stiff land; two feet of snow, all substances glibbed with ice and granite-hard.

Etymology 2

From Irish glib.

Noun

glib (plural glibs)

1. (historical) A mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly used in Ireland.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:

     Whom when she saw in wretched weedes disguiz'd, / With heary glib deform'd and meiger face, / Like ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, / She knew him not […]

   • 1596 (date written; published 1633)​, Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], OCLC 606546850; republished as A View of the State of Ireland […] (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: […] Society of Stationers, […] Hibernia Press, […] [b]y John Morrison, 1809, OCLC 22906028:

     The Irish have, from the Scythians, mantles and long glibs, which is a thick curled bush of hair hanging down over their eyes, and monstrously disguising them.

   • 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More, or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society

     Their wild costume of the glib and mantle.

   • 1855, Charles Kingsley, “Clovelly Court in the Olden Time”, in Westward Ho!: Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, […], volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., OCLC 1000395614, page 163:

     But in the dead of njight, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand.

Etymology 3

Compare Old English and dialectal English lib (“to castrate, geld”), dialectal Danish live, Low German and Old Dutch lubben.

Verb

glib (third-person singular simple present glibs, present participle glibbing, simple past and past participle glibbed)

1. (obsolete) To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.
   • c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The VVinters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     Fourteen they shall not see
     To bring false generations. They are co-heirs;
     And I had rather glib myself than they
     Should not produce fair issue.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for glib in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)

---

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gliba.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡlîːb/

Noun

glȋb m (Cyrillic spelling гли̑б)

1. mud, mire

Declension

Declension of glib

	singular	plural
nominative	glȋb	glíbovi
genitive	gliba	glibova
dative	glibu	glibovima
accusative	glib	glibove
vocative	glibe	glibovi
locative	glibu	glibovima
instrumental	glibom	glibovima

Further reading

• “glib” in Hrvatski jezični portal