Talk:glom

get to stick
I have worked with several molecular biologists who use "glom" to mean "to get to stick" as in "First, you glom some bacteria onto a toothpick and then spread them on the agar in this Petri dish." Without documentation, I don't think it would be appropriate for this entry. But perhaps it should be investigated.
 * Well, a quick Google search revealed quite a few instances of the word, including this entry from the Free Online Dictionary. It seems like it's either a back-formation of glob, a misapplication of "glom", or a neologism.


 * I don't find the sense used transitively right away, but it is a very plausible extension of the intransitive sense, which shows up in COCA. It might really be the phrasal verbs glom on and glom onto, I think. DCDuring TALK 16:46, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Transitive use: I couldn't find support for this, but Rex Stout's Three Men Out says "I glommed her..."--Prosfilaes 07:29, 18 February 2012 (UTC)

Webster's New World Dictionary:
 * glom-er-ate Latin Glomerus pp of glomerare, to wind or make into a ball <glomus, sphere, clustered, forming a mass
 * glom-e-rule Latin glomus, glomeris a ball, round knot, compact cluster 971.197.119.17 16:27, 8 April 2013 (UTC))

to Equinox

You removed this:

English
glom-er-ate clustered, formed into a rounded mass

glom-er-ation the act of forming into a rounded mass (ag-glom-eration or con-glom-eration)

glom-er-ule compact cluster, blood cappilaries etc


 * THERE IS NO GLOM in Webster Diktionary

only glom-er-ate, etc

(cur | prev) 16:54, 17 May 2014‎ Equinox (Talk | contribs)‎. . (797 bytes) (-247)‎. . (Undo revision 26695023 by 50.173.166.172 (talk) - wrong page, this page is for "glom" only) (undo) (cur | prev) 16:53, 17 May 2014‎ 50.173.166.172 (Talk)‎. . (1,044 bytes) (+247)‎. . (Webster's does not have glom, does have glomerate, glomeration glomerule) (undo) glomus

greetings(50.173.166.172 17:04, 17 May 2014 (UTC))


 * Websters dictionary is irrelevant- the word "glom" is widely used by fluent speakers of English (I use it all the time), so we have to have an entry on it. As for glom-er-ate, glom-er-ation, and glom-er-ule, in those cases, "glom" is just a syllable shown as part of illustrating the hyphenation for those words (the actual word element would be glomer- from Latin or, if anything). Our entries are arranged by spelling of the whole word or of meaningful word elements such as prefixes or suffixes. Adding syllables from hyphenation examples to the spellings of those syllables would be ab-so-lute-ly sil-ly. Chuck Entz (talk) 17:24, 17 May 2014 (UTC)


 * In other words, glom is a word in English English, but it is NOT a word (by itself) in American English language ??? (50.173.166.172 18:00, 17 May 2014 (UTC))


 * No, it just means there are some words that Webster hasn't included yet. Webster isn't a perfect god of the language. Equinox ◑ 00:28, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

"glomming" is sometimes used in discussions of syntax
i.e. the formation of compound words. I suppose our given sense of "attach" covers it. Equinox ◑ 18:41, 17 July 2017 (UTC)

Evidence for glom = steal
S1 E19 of ‘Prison Break’: “If you want me to glom it for you, you’ve got to do something for me: kill him”. Overlordnat1 (talk) 00:05, 3 December 2021 (UTC)

RFV discussion: July 2022–February 2023
Rfv-senses These need labels, but it also needs to be demonstrated that these would be distinct from 1.3 "to attach". &mdash; S URJECTION / T / C / L / 10:01, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * 1) A cluster of heterogeneous things.
 * 2) (transitive) To combine together into a larger mass.
 * Surely it’s etymology 1 verb sense 3 that should be removed with the quotes transferred to the sense at etymology 2. It seems more likely that the etymology for glom = attach is from ‘conglomerate’ than the Scottish ‘glaum’. glom on and glom onto could be deleted and their quotes transferred too. Overlordnat1 (talk) 11:28, 10 July 2022 (UTC)

RFV Failed Ioaxxere (talk) 04:21, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

RFV discussion: February–April 2023
Rfv-of the spelling , used for meaning "to stare". I can only find it as glaum, glawm, and gloom with this sense. Leasnam (talk) 02:28, 19 February 2023 (UTC)


 * To my surprise, I think I can cite glom meaning something in the vein of "to look at" or "to stare" (although it's hard to be sure what exactly it means): Citations:glom. I think both glom and glaum need some cleaning up, though. Ety 2 of glom is currently defined as an alt form of glaum, but if the definition at glaum is accurate ("To look sullen or sad; scowl, frown; look, stare") I discern no trace of looking sullen or sad in the cites of glom, and conversely the senses under ety 1 of glom seems like they are alt forms of ety 1 of glaum. - -sche (discuss) 21:27, 18 March 2023 (UTC)

does this look good to be passed? Ioaxxere (talk) 21:40, 14 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I think the RFV issue has been resolved. The main issue left is to figure out how much of glom and glaum can be merged (and one made an alt form), but that's not an RFV issue, and I'll try and deal with it, or someone else can. - -sche (discuss) 03:14, 15 April 2023 (UTC)

RFV Passed Ioaxxere (talk) 05:43, 15 April 2023 (UTC)