glen
nouncommon in dialogue
- United States//ɡlɛn//
- //ɡlɪn//
A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale.
noun
- 1
A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale.
What riches too, of gold and jewels, might not be hidden among those forest-shrouded glens and peaks? And beyond, and beyond again, ever new islands, new continents perhaps, an inexhaustible wealth of yet undiscovered worlds.
In the glens of the hills about Strathsporran are many noble and nimble stags. But I have never set foot in my house there, for it is carpeted throughout with the tartan of my clan.
Etymology
From Middle English glen, borrowed from Irish gleann and Scottish Gaelic gleann, Old and Middle Irish glend, glenn (“mountain valley”), from Proto-Celtic *glendos (“valley”), hypothetically from Proto-Indo-European *glend- (“shore”) but the word may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European substrate language. Compare Manx glion, Welsh glyn. Doublet of glyn.
Forms
- plural
- glens
glen · A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale.
Glen · A Scottish habitational surname from Scottish Gaelic for…Glenn · An unincorporated community in Glenn County, California,…glide · To move softly, smoothly, or effortlessly.