glenchen

Middle English

Alternative forms

• glauncen, glansen

Etymology

A blend of:

• Old French glacier, glachier, glaichier (“to slide; to slip”) (whence also Middle English glacen (“of a blow: to strike obliquely, glance; to glide”)), from glace (“frozen water, ice”) (from Vulgar Latin *glacia, from Latin glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin, + -ier (suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs); and
• Old French guenchir, ganchir (“to avoid; to change direction; to elude, evade”) [and other forms], from Proto-West Germanic *wankijan (“to move aside; to stagger, sway; to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weng- (“to bend”).

Verb

glenchen

1. (intransitive) (of a weapon) to glance, graze (not deliver the full effect of a blow)
2. (intransitive) to dart, move quickly

Derived terms

• glaunsyng

Descendants

• English: glance

References

• “glenchen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.