noun
glamour
An attractive and exciting quality that makes a person, place, or lifestyle seem special.
Where it comes from
Glamour now means an attractive, exciting quality, especially the polished allure of fashion or celebrity. Before it reached Hollywood, however, it belonged to magic. Scots glamour meant enchantment or a spell, especially one that deceived the sight. The form is generally explained as an alteration of grammar: medieval learning included knowledge that could seem mysterious or occult. Walter Scott helped carry the Scots word into wider literary English, where magical charm gradually became alluring charm. Learned mystery became magic, and magic became irresistible appeal.
How the meaning developed
Glamour moved from learned mystery, to enchantment, to the polished charm we recognize today.
Sources
- Glamour
- Scottish National Dictionary entry for glamour
- Glamour: etymology and word history
- The History of Glamour
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-10-05. Report a correction.