Glean

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Dr. Goodword
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Glean

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Nov 27, 2022 7:43 pm

• glean •


Pronunciation: gleen • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. (Historical) To gather grain or other farm produce left by reapers, diggers, etc. 2. To patiently gather bit by bit.

Notes: Here is a word whose figurative sense has replaced its literal sense just as farm machinery has replaced reapers and gleaners. There! We've already used the personal noun, gleaner. It also brings with it a passive adjective, gleanable, which leaves the door open for gleanability. Otherwise, both participles are used as adjectives and the present participle, gleaning, is used as a noun.

In Play: We will only read glean in its original sense in historical works: "Hershel was allowed to glean the potatoes left behind in the field by the pickers." The figurative sense is commonplace today: "I went to India to see what knowledge about life I could glean from the gurus and other pundits there."

Word History: Today's Good Word was wrenched from Old French glener "to glean" (Modern French glaner) from Late Latin glennare "to collect". How it got into Latin is a mystery begging for speculation. The best guess is that Latin took it from Celtic glano- "clean, clear", source also of Breton glan "pure, plain, simple", Cornish, Welsh, Irish and Scots Gaelic glan "clean, clean, pure", and Manx glen "clean, clear-cut" and glenney "clean, clear". Some have tried to link the Celtic word with PIE ghren-/ghron- "green; to grow" that went into the making of such words as green and grass, but the phonological and semantic problems weigh heavily against such a suggestion. (We have gleaned many Good Words from the participation of Joakim Larsson of Sweden in our lexical enterprise; today's is yet another.)
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Glean

Postby Philip Hudson » Tue Nov 29, 2022 12:03 am

My grandfather used to glean his own cotton crop. Not all cotton bolls open at the same time. When most of them were open we picked cotton by hand. Granddaddy used to leave the cotton stalks in the field and pick the rows again. Then came mandatory plowing cotton stalks under the ground to reduce the infection of harmful insects. He didn't get to glean anymore.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Re: Glean

Postby Dr. Goodword » Tue Nov 29, 2022 11:45 pm

When I went to the local rural North Carolina schools from 1950 to 1953, it was common for kids my age (12-15) to pick cotton after school to pick up a bit of pocket money. As I recall we received $0.07/pound. But we picked the bushes clean and left nothing to be gleaned.

The African Americans who worked along with me from sunup to sundown and could pick about 200 lbs. per day. They couldn't afford to let their children my age and younger go to even segregated schools. We've come a long way over my lifetime, though we still have a bit to go yet.

Now we have machines that can pick several rows at a time and bale it, too. I don't know if the machines leave anything to glean or not.
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David Myer
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Re: Glean

Postby David Myer » Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:27 am

Two good stories there. Enjoyed them both. Thanks.

Philip Hudson
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Re: Glean

Postby Philip Hudson » Thu Dec 01, 2022 5:19 pm

I am no longer a farm boy, buy my sister is still down on the farm.
Current cotton-picking practices leave much to glean but no one to glean it. The word always puts me in mind of the story of Ruth in the Bible. You may have noted that this sweet little domestic scene took place during the so-called Judges era of the history of Israel, arguably the most turbulent and horrible part of Holy Writ.
Last edited by Philip Hudson on Thu Dec 01, 2022 5:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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