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Glom

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:46 pm
by Dr. Goodword

• glom •


Pronunciation: glahm • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. (Transitive) To grab, snatch, take, or seize something not belonging to you, as 'to glom some cash'. 2. (Intransitive) Used in the same sense with the preposition onto, for instance 'to glom onto some cash'. 3. To stare at, to ogle, to fix your attention on or attach yourself to someone or something.

Notes: Today's Good Word is a normal English word, completely assimilated into English, though, as we will see, its origins are not purely Germanic. The noun and adjective for this word are glomming, also the present participle. The past tense and past participle are glommed. Don't forget to double the M whenever you add any ending save -s: gloms.

In Play: This term means first and foremost the acquisition of an object by questionable means: "Where did you glom the tickets for tonight's concert?" This word can also mean to ogle and, recently, to attach yourself to someone: "Ivan Odor glommed onto Anne Chovee as soon as she stepped into the room and monopolized her until the end of the party."

Word History: This word was a lexical gift from the US underworld. It was an element of underworld slang that entered the language spelled glahm, pretty much as it is pronounced today (see Pronunciation). It apparently was glommed from Scottish, which has a word glaum meaning "to snatch". The Scots came by it from Gaelic glam "to grab voraciously, to devour". At this point the trail grows very cold. The sense of "stare" or "ogle" developed metaphorically from the sense of grabbing onto something with our eyes. (I just glommed onto Patricia Castellanos's suggestion of today's Good Word, which she submitted in 2010. She was then in Montevideo, Uruguay. I don't know where she is now, let alone whether she will forgive me for the delay. I recently purchased a new computer that automatically brought over my files from the old one. It found more than 5000 e-mails I thought I'd lost.)

Re: GLOMMMING IN THE GLOAMING

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:09 am
by MTC
GLOMMING IN THE GLOAMING

Glommin' in the gloamin' on the bonny banks o' Clyde
Roamin' in the gloamin' with my lassie by my side
When the sun has gone to rest
That's the time we love the best
Ach, it's lovely glommin' in the gloamin'

Kinda touchin', isn't it laddies and lassies? Two lovestruck thieves, plying their trade in the shadowy twilight (a good time for it). Just makes your heart go all gooey, doesn't it?

Re: GLOM

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:27 am
by Perry Lassiter
Your last comment brought me up short! I read the first word as ogling the girl. Ere today, I only knew that sense of the word, except a kindred sense of catching on, understanding.

Re: GLOM

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:44 am
by MTC
I like your prurient interpretation better, Perry.

Re: GLOM

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 12:13 pm
by LukeJavan8
Am reminded of Tolkien's Gollum, who, in
Jackson's recent renditions, did not know what a
Hobbit is (if I saw that correctly), especially when
he is/was one.

Re: GLOM

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2021 12:36 pm
by bbeeton
I wonder if there's any relation between "glom" and either "conglomerate" (in geology, a concretion of smaller pieces, puddingstone, or in the corporate world, an entity formed of multiple disparate enterprises) or "agglomeration" (a messy collection).

Re: GLOM

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:23 am
by David Myer
Barbara,

I think the conglomeration comes from glomus, Latin for a ball. A balling together - perhaps like forming an uncooked meat ball?

I guess not connected to this Scottish root. I did like MTC's glomming in the gloaming. Perhaps this is a polite word for poaching - as in poaching fish from the salmon river.

Re: GLOM

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2021 1:45 pm
by Philip Hudson
Definition 3 is the only one known here in the hinterlands. a frequent comment is, "Glom on that!" This is an old thread. My good friend Perry Lassiter commented. He shuffled off his mortal coil some years ago.