glamour [E18th] Although the two words are rarely associated with each other, glamour and grammar [ME] are related. Glamour was originally a Scots word meaning ‘enchantment or magic’ or ‘a magic spell or charm’—if someone cast the glamour over you, they enchanted or bewitched you—and was an altered form of grammar. Greek gramma ‘a letter of the alphabet, something written down’ was the source of grammar, which in medieval times had the sense ‘scholarship or learning’. Learning and the study of books was popularly associated with astrology and occult practices, hence the connection with magic. ‘Magical beauty’ became associated with glamour in the mid 19th century, and from the 1930s the word was particularly used of attractive women. The shortening glam was first written down in the 1960s but is probably older. See also prestige.