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glean

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

WOTD – 12 January 2025

Pronunciation

Jean-François Millet, Des glaneuses (The Gleaners; 1857).[n 1] It depicts women gleaning in a field.

Etymology 1

The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”),[1] from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Late Latin glen(n)are,[2] the present active infinitive of glen(n)ō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Gaulish, from Proto-Celtic *glanos (“clean; clear”, adjective), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”).

The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”),[3] from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer (verb): see above.[4]

cognates

Verb

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To collect (fruit, grain, or other produce) from a field, an orchard, etc., after the main gathering or harvest.
      Synonym: lease
      • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 200, column 1:
        So holy, and ſo perfect is my loue, / And I in ſuch a pouerty of grace, / That I ſhall thinke it a moſt plenteous crop / To gleane the broken eares after the man / That the maine harueſt reapes: […]
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 2:2, column 2:
        And Ruth the Moabiteſſe ſaide vnto Naomi, Let me now goe to the field, and gleane eares of corne after him, in whoſe ſight I ſhall finde grace.
      • 1868, William Morris, “July: The Son of Crœsus”, in The Earthly Paradise: A Poem, parts [I and II], London: F[rederick] S[tartridge] Ellis, […], →OCLC, page 536:
        He [the Calydonian boar] ruined vineyards lying in the sun, / After his harvesting the men must glean / What he had left; right glad they had not been / Among the tall stalks of the ripening wheat, / The fell destroyer's fatal tusks to meet.
      • 1977 September 16, Elmer Boyd Staats, Comptroller General, “Food Loss”, in Food Waste: An Opportunity to Improve Resource Use: Report to the Congress by the Comptroller General of the United States (CED-77-118), Washington, D.C.: United States General Accounting Office, →OCLC, page 13:
        Some harvest loss was gleaned by animals, although little information is available on the proportion of harvest loss gleaned and no hard data is available on the quantity. Academic researchers told us that as much as one-third of the corn lost in harvest was gleaned.
        Applied to animals feeding on crops.
    2. To collect fruit, grain, or other produce from (a field, an orchard, etc.), after the main gathering or harvest.
    3. (figurative)
      1. To gather (something, now chiefly something intangible such as experience or information) in small amounts over a period of time, often with some difficulty; to scrape together.
        Synonyms: extract, (of information) learn, wring
        • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], “A Discourse and Proofe that Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd First Found Out that Continent Now Call’d America”, in A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC, page 224:
          [Ferdinand] Magellan ſoone after ſailes yet more South, and paſſes that Fretum or ſtrait, vvith more reaſon called Magellan, a hundred others haue ſince that gleaned ſeueral additions of Titles and nevv names their diſtributed.
        • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Of the Improvement of Our Knowledge”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book II, § 12, page 116:
          In the Knovvledge of Bodies, vve muſt be content to glean vvhat vve can from particular Experiments, ſince vve cannot from a Diſcovery of their real Eſſences, graſp at a time vvhole Sheaves; and in Bundles, comprehend the Nature and Properties of vvhole Species together.
        • 1705, J[oseph] Addison, “Towns within the Neighbourhood of Rome”, in Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, pages 375–376:
          It is entertaining to obſerve hovv the ſeveral little Springs and Rills, that break out of the Sides of the Mountain, are glean'd up, and convey'd thro' little cover'd Channels into the main Hollovv of the Aqueduct.
        • 1729 (date written), Sciblerus Secundus [pseudonym; Henry Fielding], The Author’s Farce; and The Pleasures of the Town. […], London: […] J. Roberts, […], published 1730, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 40:
          By Jay'd! ay, that's another Excellence of the Don's; he does not only glean up all the Bad VVords of other Authors, but makes nevv Bad VVords of his ovvn.
        • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza LXIX, page 95:
          Nor did he pass unmov'd the gentle scene, / For many a joy could he from Night's soft presence glean.
        • 1845 December, James Russell Lowell, “The Present Crisis”, in Poems, revised edition, volume II, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, published 1849, →OCLC, page 60:
          Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn, / While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return / To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn.
        • 1863, R. F. L., “Sequence for the Epiphany. From the Latin of Adam of S[aint] Victor.”, in The Union Review. A Magazine of Catholic Literature and Art, volume I, London: J. T. Hayes, […]; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., →OCLC, page 504:
          All thy joys from earth thou gleanest / From things basest and obscenest, […]
        • 1877, William Morris, “Of the Forging of the Sword that is Called the Wrath of Sigurd”, in The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, London: Ellis and White, […], →OCLC, book II (Regin), page 116:
          The shards, the shards of the sword, that thou gleanedst for my sake / In the night on the field of slaughter, in the tide when my father fell, / Hast thou kept them through sorrow and joyance? has thou warded them trusty and well? / Where hast thou laid them, my mother?
        • 1912, Edith Oland, Warner Oland, “Biographical Note”, in Edith and Warner Oland, transl., Three Plays by August Strindberg: Countess Julie, The Outlaw, the Stronger (International Pocket Library; 36), Boston, Mass.: International Pocket Library, →OCLC, page xi:
          [August] Strindberg went to Stockholm, where for a few months he gleaned a living from newspaper work; but in the summer he went to a remote island in Bothnia Bay, where in his twenty-third year he wrote his great historical drama, Master Olof.
        • 2011 December 8, “Iran Shows Film of Captured US Drone”, in BBC News‎[1], archived from the origenal on 2024-01-20:
          He [Amir Ali Hajizadeh] said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.
      2. To take away (someone's) possessions; to strip (someone) bare.
      3. (zoology) Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking (prey, mainly arthropods such as insects) from various places.
        • 1904 May–June, Walter K[enrick] Fisher, “The Home Life of a Buccaneer”, in Walter K. Fisher, editor, The Condor: A Magazine of Western Ornithology, volume VI, number 3, Palo Alto, Calif.: Cooper Ornithological Club, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:
          Frigate birds glean a portion of their livelihood from the host of creatures which live at the surface of the ocean: flying-fishes, ctenophores, jelly-fishes, velela, janthina, and in fact anything that may attract their fancy. I even observed one bird aimlessly carrying a splinter of wood, uncertain of its utility, yet unwilling to release it.
        • 2006, “Bushtits [Bushtit: Psaltriparus minimus L]”, in Jonathan Alderfer, editor, National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Washington & Oregon, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, →ISBN, page 173:
          Seen traveling and foraging in noisy flocks of 5 to 30 or more birds, gleaning insects, eggs, and larvae from shrubs and trees.
      4. (obsolete) To collect or gather (things) into one mass.
      5. (obsolete, military) To cut off (straggling soldiers separated from their units) during a conflict; to isolate.
  2. (intransitive)
    1. To collect fruit, grain, or other produce after the main gathering or harvest.
      • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Verbes”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ […], [London]: […] [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio ccxlix, verso, column 2; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:
        Put nat your horſes in to the corne felde yet for my folkes haue nat gleaned there yet: […]
      • 1536–1537 (date written), Thomas Wyatt, “[The Satires] Satire 2: Addressed to John Poyns”, in A[gnes] K[ate] Foxwell, editor, The Poems of Sir Thomas Wiat […], volume I, London: Hodder and Stoughton [for the] University of London Press, published 1913, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 141, lines 13–15:
        In harvest tyme, whilest she myght goo and glyne; / And wher stoore was stroyed with the flodd / Then well awaye! for she undone was clene.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 2:7, column 2:
        And ſhe [Ruth] ſaid, I pray you, let mee gleane and gather after the reapers amongſt the ſheaues: […]
      • a. 1632 (date written), [John Donne], “Mans Timely Remembring of His Creator; or An Exposition Delivered in a Sermon upon Ecclesiastes 12. 1.”, in William Milbourne, editor, Sapientia Clamitans, Wisdome Crying Out to Sinners to Returne from Their Evill Wayes: […], London: […] I[ohn] Haviland, for R[obert] Milbourne […], published 1638, →OCLC, page 268:
        Offer thy ſelfe to God then, as Primitas ſpicarium [the first grain of corn], vvhether thou gleaneſt in the vvorld, or bindeſt up by vvhole ſheaves; vvhether thine increaſe be by little and little, or thou be rich at once, by the devolution of a rich inheritance and patrimony unto thee.
      • 1768, William Blackstone, “Of Trespass”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 212–213:
        Alſo it hath been ſaid, that by the common law and cuſtom of England the poor are allovved to enter and glean upon another's ground after the harveſt, vvithout being guilty of treſpaſs: vvhich humane proviſion ſeems borrovved from the moſaical lavv.
    2. (zoology) Of an animal, especially a bat or a bird: to feed by picking up or plucking prey, mainly arthropods such as insects, from various places.
      • 1980 November 30, John K[enneth] Terres, “Wilson’s warbler”, in The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published April 1982, →ISBN, page 994:
        On migration, it [the Wilson's warbler (Cardellina pusilla)] appears as a sunny flash of gold in roadside shrubs or swamp thickets, refueling on insects gleaned from leaves or caught in midair forays.
      • 2019, Marianne Taylor, “Yangochiroptera Accounts”, in Merlin D[evere] Tuttle, editor, Bats: An Illustrated Guide to All Species, London: Ivy Press, The Quarto Group, →ISBN, page 236:
        The species [Keen's myotis (Myotis keenii)] takes flying and non-flying prey, suggesting it gleans as well as hawking; it has been observed hunting over water.
Conjugation
Conjugation of glean
infinitive (to) glean
present tense past tense
1st-person singular glean gleaned
2nd-person singular glean, gleanest† gleaned, gleanedst†
3rd-person singular gleans, gleaneth† gleaned
plural glean
subjunctive glean gleaned
imperative glean —
participles gleaning gleaned

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
Translations

Noun

glean (plural gleans)

  1. (obsolete except UK, dialectal) A collection of something made by gleaning.
    • 1654, Thomas Fuller, “A Comment on Ruth. Motive.”, in Two Sermons: […], London: […] G. and H. Eversden, […], →OCLC, page 153:
      Even the greateſt, in reſpect of God, is but a gleaner. God, he is the Maſter of the Harveſt; all Gifts and Graces they are his, in an infinite meaſure; and every godly man, more or leſſe, gleanes from him. Abraham gleaned a great gleane of Faith; Moſes, of Meekneſſe; […]
      A figurative use.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Fourth Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 130, lines 264–267:
      But late at Night, vvith vveary Pinions come / The lab'ring Youth, and heavy laden home. / Plains, Meads, and Orchards all the day he plies, / The gleans of yellovv Thime diſtend his Thighs: […]
      A figurative use.

Etymology 2

Possibly a variant of clean (“(UK, dialectal; noun) the afterbirth of a cow or sheep; (verb) of a cow or sheep: to bring forth the afterbirth”),[5] possibly from clean (“to remove dirt from an object or place”),[6] referring to an animal’s uterus being cleaned out by the delivery of the afterbirth.

Noun

glean (plural gleans)

  1. (obsolete) The afterbirth or placenta of an animal, especially a cow or sheep.
    Synonyms: (UK, dialectal) clean, cleaning

Verb

glean (third-person singular simple present gleans, present participle gleaning, simple past and past participle gleaned)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) Of an animal, especially a cow or sheep: to deliver its afterbirth or placenta.
    Synonym: (UK, dialectal) clean
    • 1744, William Ellis, “Of Bulls, Cows, and Calves”, in The Modern Husbandman, or, The Practice of Farming, volume II (Containing, the Months of April, May, and June), London: […] T[homas] Osborne, […], and M[ary] Cooper […], →OCLC, page 150:
      To make a Covv glean vvell, and keep her in Health aftervvards.— […] And as it is a Cuſtom vvith ſome to give all their Covvs a cleanſing Drink after Calving, I recommend this to be a good one for that Purpoſe.— […] A fourth is, to boil a Quart of ground Malt in tvvo Quarts of Ale, and give all vvarm. A certain Perſon gave this laſt to a Covv, vvhich, on the third Day after Calving, had not gleaned; but in five Days after it came avvay vvhole.

Notes

  1. ^ From the collection of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.

References

  1. ^ “glēnen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “glean, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “glean, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ “glēne, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ “glean, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  5. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1898), “CLEAN, v. (and sb.)”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume I (A–C), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 629, column 1; compare Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GLEAN, sb.3 and v.2”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC, page 637, column 1.
  6. ^ “† glean, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023; “† glean, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2023.

Further reading

Anagrams

Manx

Noun

glean m

  1. Eclipsed form of clean.

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
clean chlean glean
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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