Glory!

Humpty Dumpty took the book, and looked at it carefully. "That seems to be done right—" he began.

"You're holding it upside down!" Alice interrupted. 

"To be sure I was!" Humpty Dumpty said gaily, as she turned it round for him. "I thought it looked a little queer. As I was saying, that seems to be done right—though I haven't time to look it over thoroughly just now—and that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents—" 

"Certainly," said Alice. 

"And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!" 

"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' " Alice said. 

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!' " 

"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,' " Alice objected. 

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." 

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

 "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

<°‿°>

You know how it goes.  The word that hit my head this morning was "glory." Hm. Thinks I, was bedeutet das? Why?

Glory doesn't actually mean whatever Humpty says it means, though I thought of him immediately.

Thought of a poem about it.  Nothing but glory do I see. Like that. But I managed to get a grip and stop that!

At its most basic, glory is bright light, verging into halos and crowns of light on divine figure's heads.

A woman's hair is said to be her glory. Now we are getting somewhere. 

glory (n.)

c. 1200, gloire "the splendor of God or Christ; praise offered to God, worship," from Old French glorie "glory (of God); worldly honor, renown; splendor, magnificence, pomp" (11c., Modern French gloire), from Latin gloria "fame, renown, great praise or honor," a word of uncertain origin.

The etymology as *gnoria "knowledge, fame" to gnarus "known" and i-gnorare has been acknowledged by some scholars, and rejected by others. In its favour speak the semantics of words for "glory", which in Indo-European societies mostly have to do with "spoken praise", "reputation by hearsay". Against the assumed etymology speak the phonetics. [de Vaan]

Meaning "one who is a source of glory" is from mid-14c. Also in Middle English "thirst for glory, vainglory, pride, boasting, vanity" (late 14c.), Sense of "magnificence" is late 14c. in English. Meaning "worldly honor, fame, renown." Latin also had gloriola "a little fame." Glory days was in use by 1970. Old Glory for "the American flag" is first attested 1862.

The Christian senses are from the Latin word's use in the Bible to translate Greek doxa "expectation" (Homer), later "an opinion, judgment," and later still "opinion others have of one (good or bad), fame; glory," which was used in Biblical writing to translate a Hebrew word which had a sense of "brightness, splendor, magnificence, majesty of outward appearance." The religious use has colored that word's meaning in most European tongues. Wuldor was an Old English word used in this sense.

***

Psalm 3:3
But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

So, perhaps we can let Humpty get away with his definition a little bit. Glory in this sense can be a fine argument for the importance and definition of a person.

Of course his claim to mastery of words is vainglorious indeed.