Mellifluous vs Glib - What's the difference?
mellifluous | glib |
Flowing like .
Sweet, smooth and musical; pleasant to hear (generally used of a person's voice, tone or writing style).
* 1915 , ":
Having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.
Smooth or slippery.
Artfully persuasive in nature.
* Shakespeare
To make glib.
(historical) A mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly worn in Ireland.
*1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.8:
*:Whom when she saw in wretched weedes disguiz'd, / With heary glib deform'd and meiger face, / Like ghost late risen from his grave agryz'd, / She knew him not […].
* Spenser
* Southey
(obsolete) To castrate; to geld; to emasculate.
* 1623 : , Act II Scene 1
mud, mire
As adjectives the difference between mellifluous and glib
is that mellifluous is flowing like honey while glib is having a ready flow of words but lacking thought or understanding; superficial; shallow.As a verb glib is
to make glib.As a noun glib is
a mass of matted hair worn down over the eyes, formerly worn in Ireland.mellifluous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- "You should read Spanish," he said. "It is a noble tongue. It has not the mellifluousness of Italian, Italian is the language of tenors and organ-grinders, but it has grandeur: it does not ripple like a brook in a garden, but it surges tumultuous like a mighty river in flood."
Usage notes
Mellifluous (like honey) is more likely to be applied to a person’s writing style while would only be appropriate for describing audible tone, voice or tenor.Synonyms
* (Sweet and smooth style) (l), (l)glib
English
Etymology 1
Probably modification of Low German glibberig'' (slippery) or a shortening of English ''glibbery (slippery).Adjective
(glibber)- a sheet of glib ice
- a glib''' tongue; a '''glib speech
- I want that glib and oily art, / To speak and purpose not.
Derived terms
* glibly * glibnessVerb
(glibb)- (Bishop Hall)
Etymology 2
From (etyl) glib.Noun
(en noun)- The Irish have, from the Scythians, mantles and long glibs , which is a thick curled bush of hair hanging down over their eyes, and monstrously disguising them.
- Their wild costume of the glib and mantle.
Etymology 3
Compare Old English and dialect (lib) to castrate, geld, Danish dialect (live), Low German and Old Dutch lubben.Verb
(glibb)- Fourteen they shall not see
- To bring false generations. They are co-heirs;
- And I had rather glib myself than they
- Should not produce fair issue.