different between vainglory vs glory

English

Etymology

From Middle English waynglori (“worthless glory”), from Old French vaine glorie, from Medieval Latin v?na gl?ria, from Latin v?na (“empty, groundless, boastful”) + gl?ria (“fame, ambition, boasting”), apparently modelled after similar terms in Germanic languages. Compare Old English ?del wuldor (“vain glory”) and ?del?ielp (“vainglory”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: vain?glo?ry

Noun

vainglory (countable and uncountable, plural vainglories)

1. Excessive vanity.
2. Boastful, unwarranted pride in one's accomplishments or qualities.

3. Vain, ostentatious display.
4. A regarding of oneself with undue favor.

Derived terms

• vaingloriness
• vainglorious

Translations

Verb

vainglory (third-person singular simple present vainglories, present participle vainglorying, simple past and past participle vaingloried)

1. (intransitive) To boast; to act in a vain manner.

English

Etymology

From Middle English glory, glorie, from Old French glorie (“glory”), from Latin gl?ria (“glory, fame, renown, praise, ambition, boasting”). Doublet of gloria.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??l???i/
• (without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /??lo(?)?i/
• Rhymes: -??ri

Noun

glory (countable and uncountable, plural glories)

1. Great beauty and splendor.
2. Honour, admiration, or distinction, accorded by common consent to a person or thing; high reputation; renown.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 2, Canto 1, p. 197,^[1]

     In this faire wize they traueild long yfere,

     Through many hard assayes, which did betide;

     Of which he honour still away did beare,

     And spred his glorie through all countries wide.

3. That quality in a person or thing which secures general praise or honour.
   • 1590, Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, London: William Ponsonbie, Book 1, “The First Eclogues,” [p. 92b],^[2]

     Deeme it no gloire [sic] to swell in tyrannie.

   • c. 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Act II, Scene 2,^[3]

     As jewels lose their glory if neglected,

     So princes their renowns if not respected.
4. Worship or praise.
5. (meteorology, optics) An optical phenomenon, consisting of concentric rings and somewhat similar to a rainbow, caused by sunlight or moonlight interacting with the water droplets that compose mist or clouds, centered on the antisolar or antilunar point.

   Synonym: anticorona

6. Victory; success.
7. An emanation of light supposed to shine from beings that are specially holy. It is represented in art by rays of gold, or the like, proceeding from the head or body, or by a disk, or a mere line.
   • 1854, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, Chapter 13,^[5]

     Seen across the dim candle with his moistened eyes, she looked as if she had a glory shining round her head.

8. (theology) The manifestation of the presence of God as perceived by humans in Abrahamic religions.
9. (obsolete) Pride; boastfulness; arrogance.
   • c. 1624, George Chapman (translator), The Crowne of all Homers Workes Batrachomyomachia or the Battaile of Frogs and Mise, His Hymn’s and Epigrams, London: John Bill, “A Hymne to Venus,” p. 106,^[6]

     […] But if thou declare

     The Secrets, truth; and art so mad to dare

     (In glory of thy fortunes) to approue,

     That rich-crownd Venus, mixt with thee in loue;

     Ioue (fir’d with my aspersion, so dispred)

     Will, with a wreakefull lightning, dart thee dead.

Synonyms

• (emanation of light proceeding from specially holy beings): halo
• praise
• worship
• fame
• honor
• honour

Related terms

Translations

Verb

glory (third-person singular simple present glories, present participle glorying, simple past and past participle gloried)

1. To exult with joy; to rejoice.
   • 1753, James Hervey, "A Visitation Sermon: Preached at Northampton, May 10, 1753":

     In what the Apostle did glory?—He gloried in a Cross. ... [T]o the Ear of a Galatian, it conveyed much the same Meaning, as if the Apostle had gloried in a Halter; gloried in the Gallows; gloried in a Gibbet.

   • 1891: Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

     He says he glories in what happened, and that good may be done indirectly; but I wish he would not so wear himself out now he is getting old, and would leave such pigs to their wallowing.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures 4 & 5:

     When the passion is extreme, suffering may actually be gloried in, provided it be for the ideal cause, death may lose its sting, the grave its victory.

2. To boast; to be proud.
   • 1881, Revised Version, 2 Corinthians 7:14:

     For if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, I was not put to shame; but as we spake all things to you in truth, so our glorying also, which I made before Titus, was found to be truth.

3. (archaic, poetic) To shine radiantly.
   • 1859–85, Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, "The Last Tournament":

     Down in a casement sat,

     A low sea-sunset glorying round her hair

     And glossy-throated grace, Isolt the Queen.

Translations

Middle English

Noun

glory

1. Alternative form of glorie