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Glean vs Eclectic - What's the difference?

glean | eclectic |

As nouns the difference between glean and eclectic

is that glean is a collection made by gleaning while eclectic is someone who selects according to the eclectic method.

As a verb glean

is to collect (grain, grapes, etc.) left behind after the main harvest or gathering.

As an adjective eclectic is

selecting a mixture of what appears to be best of various doctrines, methods or styles.

glean

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) , from (etyl).

Verb

(en verb)
  • To collect (grain, grapes, etc.) left behind after the main harvest or gathering.
  • * , Ruth 2:2,
    • Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.
  • * Shakespeare
    • To glean the broken ears after the man / That the main harvest reaps.
  • To gather what is left in (a field or vineyard).
    • to glean a field
  • To gather information in small amounts, with implied difficulty, bit by bit.
  • * John Locke
    • content to glean what we can from experiments
  • * 8 December 2011 , BBC News, Iran shows film of captured US drone , available in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16098562 :
    • He said Iran was "well aware of what priceless technological information" could be gleaned from the aircraft.
  • To frugally accumulate resources from low-yield contexts.
    • He gleaned a living from newspaper work for a few months, but in the summer went to a fishing village […] where […] he wrote his great historical drama, "Master Olof." (Translators Edith and Warner Oland on author .)
    Synonyms
    * (gather information) learn

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A collection made by gleaning.
  • * Dryden
    • The gleans of yellow thyme distend his thighs.

    Etymology 2

    Noun

  • (obsolete) cleaning; afterbirth
    • (Holland)
    (Webster 1913)

    Anagrams

    * * * *

    eclectic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * eclectick (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Selecting a mixture of what appears to be best of various doctrines, methods or styles.
  • * 1893 , John Robson, Hinduism and its Relations to Christianity , page 211, 214
    • Chunder Sen and the Progressive Brahmists broke entirely with Hinduism...and he selected from the scriptures of all creeds what seemed best in them for instruction and for worship. It is an eclectic' religion: it seeks to select what is good from all religions, and it has become the latest evidence that no ' eclectic religion can ever influence large numbers of men.
  • Unrelated and unspecialized; heterogeneous.
  • * 1983 , Peter J. Wilson, Man, the Promising Primate: The Conditions of Human Evolution , page 140
    • All members of the Hominoidea, apes and man, show an eclectic taste in food but select, from a wide range of possibilities, only a few to provide the bulk of their diet.
  • * 2006 , W. Frederick Zimmerman, Should Barack Obama Be President? , page 153
    • Colvin said Obama has an eclectic taste in music, listening to everything from Indonesian flute music to OutKast to Motown.

    Derived terms

    * eclectically * eclecticism

    Synonyms

    * (unrelated and unspecialized) heterogeneous

    Antonyms

    * (selecting a mixture of doctrines) exclusive, homogeneous, orthodox, standard, uniform

    See also

    * cherry pick * heteroclite

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who selects according to the eclectic method.