4.0039 Glom (187)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 14 May 90 17:08:17 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0039. Monday, 14 May 1990.


(1) Date: Fri, 11 May 90 16:57:25 EDT (9 lines)
From: "Paul N. Banks" <pbanks@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>
Subject: Glom [eds]

(2) Date: Fri, 11 May 90 17:42:58 EDT (12 lines)
From: pdk@iris.brown.edu (Paul D. Kahn)
Subject: Glom [eds]

(3) Date: 11 May 90 18:02:11 EST (15 lines)
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: Glom [eds]

(4) Date: Fri, 11 May 90 15:43:32 -0700 (16 lines)
From: ruhleder@sloth.ICS.UCI.EDU
Subject: ``Glom''

(5) Date: Fri, 11 May 90 20:54:38 EDT (17 lines)
From: John Unsworth <JMUEG@NCSUVM>
Subject: Glom

(6) Date: Fri, 11 May 90 21:31 CDT (14 lines)
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Glom

(7) Date: Sat, 12 May 90 12:09:14 CDT (9 lines)
From: GA0708@SIUCVMB
Subject: Glom

(8) Date: Sat, 12 May 90 17:59:53 EDT (24 lines)
From: "Adam C. Engst" <PV9Y@CORNELLA>
Subject: Glom [eds]

(9) Date: Sat, 12 May 90 15:28 PDT (14 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Glom [eds]

(10) Date: Sat, 12 May 90 09:48:47 EDT (12 lines)
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Glom

(11) Date: Sun, 13 May 90 06:41 EDT (10 lines)
From: "Leslie Z. Morgan" <MORGAN@LOYVAX>
Subject: Glom [eds]

(12) Date: Mon, 14 May 90 09:03:02 EDT (16 lines)
From: Bronwen Heuer <BRONWEN@SBCCVM>
Subject: Glom

(13) Date: Mon, 14 May 90 08:36:25 MDT (24 lines)
From: koontz@alpha (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Glomming Onto

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 11 May 90 16:57:25 EDT
From: "Paul N. Banks" <pbanks@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu>
Subject: Re: 4.0034 Queries: "Glom"; ALR-Powerflex (32)

In response to Simon Rae's query about "glom": I don't have any idea
of its origins, but "to glom onto" is, I'm almost certain, a phrase
from my childhood, which means that (if I am correct in remembering it
from childhood) it has been around in the U.S. at least forty or fifty
years.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Fri, 11 May 90 17:42:58 EDT
From: pdk@iris.brown.edu (Paul D. Kahn)
Subject: Re: 4.0034 Queries: "Glom"; ALR-Powerflex (32)

Glom

Well, the word gets used at IRIS alot. People glom things together, as in
"If you glom together all the different options you come up with..."
I always assumed it was a linguistic mutation of conglomerate, which
is in my online version of the American Heritage Dictionary as a verb,
along with the adjective glomerate, both from Latin glomerare, to wind
into a ball and glomus ball. Must be American usage.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------20----
Date: 11 May 90 18:02:11 EST
From: James O'Donnell <JODONNEL@PENNSAS>
Subject: appendix to last message

... [eds]

`Glom', on the other hand, is fine old American slang, but not the sort
of thing that turns up on paper very often. I would say that it is
initially a verb of seeing, but with overtones of acquisition: you glom
on to something when you not merely look at it, but look at it all over,
get the idea behind it, and somehow or other make the seen into your own
possession. So it can appear in context just as a rough equivalent for
`to learn'. Also a useful word.
(4) --------------------------------------------------------------28----
Date: Fri, 11 May 90 15:43:32 -0700
From: ruhleder@sloth.ICS.UCI.EDU
Subject: ``Glom''

In a recent message, Simon Rae asked about the word, ``glom.'' I've
heard it used for several years now (but only among people in an
information and computer sciences department, as far as I can remember).
It's not in my dictionary, though it might well come from ``glomerate,''
which is. To ``glom onto something'' is to latch on to a new idea,
technology, or even group of people. I wouldn't deem it a commonly use
word.

Karen Ruhleder
UC Irvine
(5) --------------------------------------------------------------25----
Date: Fri, 11 May 90 20:54:38 EDT
From: John Unsworth <JMUEG@NCSUVM>
Subject: Glom

Simon Rae asks for information about the word "glom"--I also noticed it
with pleasure in Sally Webster's mailing. It's a word I've heard and
used for at least ten years. I don't know where it comes from, but my
guess would be that it is related to "conglomerate" (abbreviated from?).
Perhaps it originated as slang in the business world, where to
"conglomerate" with another company might be abbreviated as "glom onto".
There is a word "glomerate" (adj., meaning formed into a ball): the
Latin root of that word is "glomus"--a ball. At any rate, glomming is
definitely something done with the hands (though the word is used
metaphorically to describe any type of grabbing or latching onto, e.g. by
the attention).

John Unsworth
<jmueg@ncsuvm>
(6) --------------------------------------------------------------22----
Date: Fri, 11 May 90 21:31 CDT
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Glom

Simon Rae asks about 'glom.' I've been aware of this word since
childhood; in American use, at least, it occurs only in the expression
'glom on to,' which I have always taken to have the sense 'grab.' Eric
Partridge says: glom on to: To grab; to steal: Can.: since ca. 1920.
(Robin Leech, 1974.) Via US, ex Scots dial. glam, glaum, to clutch. I
have never heard the word used in the sense 'steal.' For what it's
worth, the earliest printed occurrences I can recall are in Pogo comic
strips from the 1950s (Walt Kelly was rather fond of the expression).
(7) --------------------------------------------------------------15----
Date: Sat, 12 May 90 12:09:14 CDT
From: GA0708@SIUCVMB
Subject: Glom

Simon Rae wrote asking about the word "glom." Hadn't crossed the
boundary into UK yet, he thought. Actually the word, according to
Websters Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, has been around for close to a
century. In fact, from an English d ialectal form, "glaum," meaning to
grab.

H. Donow Southern Illinois U. 5
(8) --------------------------------------------------------------31----
Date: Sat, 12 May 90 17:59:53 EDT
From: "Adam C. Engst" <PV9Y@CORNELLA>
Subject: Re: 4.0034 Queries: "Glom"; ALR-Powerflex (32)

Ah yes, 'to glom'. An interesting word which I use rather often, mostly
in reference to an action approximating that with which my plecostomus
catfish sucks on to the side of the aquarium and refuses to move. Also
appropriate for describing the actions of small children clutching
soon-to-be-favorite new stuff animals. Possibly related to the Greek
lamBanw or maybe even to some lesser usages of proseXw (ASCII terminals
are terrible for Greek). Certainly not linguistically descended from the
above words however. :-)
Adam

Disclaimer: I haven't the foggiest idea what I'm talking about, I can't
remember my Greek from Matt Neuburg as well as I'd like, and
if pressed would claim my mother invented the word. :-)

Adam C. Engst pv9y@cornella.bitnet
(9) --------------------------------------------------------------136---
Date: Sat, 12 May 90 15:28 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0034 Queries: "Glom"; ALR-Powerflex (32)

To glom onto is Americanism. goes as far back as 1907. "glom; glaum;
glahm: n. A hand, considered as a tool for grabbing. v.t. To grab; to
seize; to take hold of. and to steal. 1907. "we discovered that our
hands were gloved. "Where'd ye glahm 'em?" Iasked JACK LONDON, The
Road, 131. 1951: "Under the pretense of glomming a diamond from the
strongbox of a rascally broker..." S J Perelman, NEW YORKER, Mar 3,
27.2. THE MOST COMMON MEANING; ORIG. HOBO AND UNDERWORLD USE. v. i. to
be arrested. Lit:= to be grabbed by the hand of the law. glommer=A hand,
used from grabbing or stealing. since c1930=ONe who uses his hands to
graps things,as a fruitpicker. Cf MITTGLOMMER. from DICTIONARY OF
AMERICAN SLANG, Wentowrth & Flexner 1960. Kessler@ucla
(10) --------------------------------------------------------------22---
Date: Sat, 12 May 90 09:48:47 EDT
From: Germaine Warkentin <WARKENT@vm.epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Glom

Glom is a delightful and expressive verb, and I suspect it's widely used
here in Canada. I remember it from my adolescence in the second-largest
city in the country, and my husband from his forties boyhood in a rural
Manitoba town. I always thought it must be a Brit word, and I may be
right: a Webster's we have at home (where I am as I write) says: 1907;
from British dialect "glaum". It's not in the old OED (which we have in
the magnifying-glass version) but may be in the Supplements or second
edition. Is the set of words associated the word "agglomerate" (roll
into a ball) part of all this? Germaine Warkentin
(11) --------------------------------------------------------------14---
Date: Sun, 13 May 90 06:41 EDT
From: "Leslie Z. Morgan" <MORGAN@LOYVAX>
Subject: RE: 4.0034 Queries: "Glom"; ALR-Powerflex (32)

"Glom"has unfortunate connotations to me; I've heard it only in the form
"glom those gams!" in speaking of female legs. My husband tells me it
is a common expression. Other than that, I have never hear of it!
L. Morgan (Morgan@LOYVAX)
(12) --------------------------------------------------------------23---
Date: Mon, 14 May 90 09:03:02 EDT
From: Bronwen Heuer <BRONWEN@SBCCVM>
Subject: Glom

My Websters show a date of 1907 for the adoption of GLOM--and yes, I use
it all the time; my mother has used it for a long as I can remember:
``You kids will glom on to anything!'' 1. Slang: take, steal. 2. slang:
seize, catch. glom on to, slang: to take possession of. [vt. glommed,
glomming]

bronwen heuer room 137 phone(516)632-8054
coordinator of user services computing center
state university of ny bitnet: bronwen@sbccvm
stony brook, ny 11794 internet: bronwen@ccvm.sunysb.edu
(13) --------------------------------------------------------------36---
Date: Mon, 14 May 90 08:36:25 MDT
From: koontz@alpha (John E. Koontz)
Subject: Glomming Onto

glom onto v.tr. to take up the use of (colloquial)

This doesn't strike me as particularly new usage, but I couldn't say
when or where I picked it up.