Glamour

Glamour is a way of looking and moving, within the reach of only those certain few. It is the grand, glitzy flourish of a striking visage; it is homogenised, captivated, a trifle self besotted. We see richness, overindulgence, panache; a touch of self-importance.

Think Fashion and Celebrity. Think Emilio Pucci. Think Anna Pavlova and Roxy music. Think Ballet Goes Hollywood, and Dame Margot Fonteyn.
Or perhaps Jeannie Little.

Gla"mour (?), n. [Scot. glamour, glamer; cf. Icel. glámeggdr one who is troubled with the glaucoma (?); or Icel. glam-sni weakness of sight, glamour; glamr name of the moon, also of a ghost + sni sight akin to E. see. Perh., however, a corruption of E. gramarye.]

1.

A charm affecting the eye, making objects appear different from what they really are.

2.

Witchcraft; magic; a spell.

Tennyson.

3.

A kind of haze in the air, causing things to appear different from what they really are.

The air filled with a strange, pale glamour that seemed to lie over the broad valley. W. Black.

4.

Any artificial interest in, or association with, an object, through which it appears delusively magnified or glorified.

Glamour gift, Glamour might, the gift or power of producing a glamour. The former is used figuratively, of the gift of fascination peculiar to women.

It had much of glamour might To make a lady seem a knight. Sir W. Scott.

© Webster 1913.