alpenglow

Pronounced: AL-puhn-glow, noun

Notes: This is a word that few of us have seen, and yet many people have seen

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Yesterday’s word

The word reeve, as a verb, means “to pass (a rope or something like) through”. As a noun, it means “a local official”.

First usage

The verb form goes back to the early 1600s; the noun form goes back to before 1100.

Background / Comments

No one knows where the verb form came from; however, the noun form comes from Old English gerefa (high official). Our word is one of the root words behind “sheriff”, which was originally the high official (“reeve”) of the certain area in the UK (“shire”) – the shire’s reeve, which was shortened to “sheriff”.