glen
/ɡlɛn/ noun, proper noun
Forms glens
- noun A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale.
- proper noun A Scottish habitational surname from Scottish Gaelic for someone who lives in a valley.
- proper noun A male given name transferred from the surname.
- proper noun A river in England, mainly in Lincolnshire.
- proper noun A river in Northumberland, England, a tributary of the River Till.
- proper noun A village in northern County Donegal, Ireland; in Irish An Gleann from gleann (“glen”).
- proper noun A town in Alcorn County, Mississippi.
- proper noun A census-designated place in Beaverhead County, Montana.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Sioux County, Nebraska, situated in a glen.
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.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Of Celtic origin; cf. W. glyn a deep valley, Ir. & Gael. gleann valley, glen.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “glen”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details