glitter [ME] Glitter comes from Old Norse glitra, but was probably blended with Old English gliddrian ‘to slip, be unstable’. All that glitters is not gold dates back at least to the 14th century. Glitzy, ‘showily attractive’, first appeared in the USA in the 1960s. It was based on glitter, and probably influenced by ritzy and perhaps also by German glitzerig ‘glittering’. Ritzy comes from the luxurious Ritz hotels, and is first recorded used by P. G. Wodehouse in 1920.