Glamer, Glamor, Glamour

[jgbrowning]

My SRD says glamer, but my dictionary says glamor or glamour?

joe "not always quick with the obvious" b.

 

[hrafnagud]

My SRD says glamer, but my dictionary says glamor or glamour?

joe "not always quick with the obvious" b.

glamour, glamor n. dazzling charm, allure and mysterious fascination [original meaning 'enchantment' derived from the popular association between learning and magic]

The SRD is hardly a scholastic work; stick with the dictionary.

BTW, last time I looked, the word 'dweomer' was not in the OED. Anyone have a clue where this comes from?

 

[tarchon]

My SRD says glamer, but my dictionary says glamor or glamour?

"Glamer" is an old alternative spelling - I'm sure they're just trying to set it apart from "glamor."

 

[Hypersmurf]

BTW, last time I looked, the word 'dweomer' was not in the OED. Anyone have a clue where this comes from?

dweomer
An obscure word meaning magic.

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From The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, Volume 1 (A-O); 18th Printing, 1979; Library of Congress catalog number 76-188038:

Dweomercraeft. Obs. [f. O.E. *dwimer, *dweomer, in zedwimer, zedwomer, illusion, sourcery, necromancy, zedwinere, juggler, sourcerer + craeft, CRAFT.] Juggler, magic art.

c.1205 LAY. 30634 And Pelux hit wiste anan purh his dweomer-craeften.

Related: Dweomerlayk = Demerlayk.

Tolkein uses 'Dwimmerlaik' as a contemptuous title for the lord of the Nazgul. This appears to be a way of saying 'necromancer', given gedwimer = sorcery and lic = corpse.

-Hyp.

 

[tarchon]

dweomer
c.1205 LAY. 30634 And Pelux hit wiste anan purh his dweomer-craeften.

The "eo" spelling only appears in that one version of Layamon's Brut, to my knowledge. If it had survived to modern English, it probably would have been "dwimmer."

 

[Zander]

glamour, glamor n. dazzling charm, allure and mysterious fascination [original meaning 'enchantment' derived from the popular association between learning and magic]

The SRD is hardly a scholastic work; stick with the dictionary.

BTW, last time I looked, the word 'dweomer' was not in the OED. Anyone have a clue where this comes from?

I always thought that 'glamer' and 'glamour' had different meanings. 'Glamour', as your definition states, is something alluring, while 'glamer' is something that is illusory.

My old man has the mother of all OEDs; 20 volumes IIRC in micro print. When I get the chance, I'll check 'glamer', 'glamour', 'dweomer' and 'eldritch'.

If all else fails, blame Col. Pladoh!

 

[Steverooo]

In olden times, even up through the 1700s, spellings were often different, and words spelt like they sounded. Thus, glamor, glamour, glamer, glammer, etc.

The definition for glamour given above is correct. In many old Fey tales, a glammer was cast upon something (a flower, a maiden, etc.) to make it seem more fair and enchanting than it was... more glamourous! Hence, the misnomer (IMHO) of a "glamer" as any illusion.

D&D does a similar thing with Divinations, which are not just information-gathering, but foretellings of the future. Detect Magic, for instance, is not a "Divination", although it is classified as such in the game...

 

[Gez]

If you go by etymologic nitpicking, a necromancer is one who practice divination (mancy don't meaning magic, but divination) through the dead. (In other words, by asking ancestor spirits to give him insight or answer questions.) A spiritist is what fills the definition of necromancer best.

(This also mean that the common practice of naming new magic "thingomancy", as in neuromancer or all the mancies in Unknown Armies, is totally wrong. Unless said magic's only purpose is foretelling.)

Of course, meanings change. Divination has been expanded to include any magic that allow to see something else than what the eyes see, while necromancy has been modified to allow to do any kind of stuff that relates to death, corpse or deceased souls.