Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Gloves |
GlovesNoun1. Handwear: covers the hand and wrist. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "gloves" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1050. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Dream Interpretation | To dream of wearing new gloves, denotes that you will be cautious and economical in your dealings with others, but not mercenary. You will have law suits, or business troubles, but will settle them satisfactorily to yourself. If you wear old or ragged gloves, you will be betrayed and suffer loss. If you dream that you lose your gloves, you will be deserted and earn your own means of livelihood. To find a pair of gloves, denotes a marriage or new love affair. For a man to fasten a lady's glove, he has, or will have, a woman on his hands who threatens him with exposure. If you pull your glove off, you will meet with poor success in business or love. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted .... |
Literature | Gloves are not worn in the presence of royalty, because we are to stand unarmed, with the helmet off the head and gauntlets off the hands, to show we have no hostile intention. (See Salutations.) Gloves used to be worn by the clergy to indicate that their hands are clean and not open to bribes. They are no longer officially worn by the parochial clergy. Gloves given to a judge in a maiden assize. In an assize without a criminal, the sheriff presents the judge with a pair of white gloves. Chambers says, anciently judges were not allowed to wear gloves on the bench (Cyclopædia). To give a judge a pair of gloves, therefore, symbolised that he need not come to the bench, but might wear gloves. You owe me a pair of gloves. A small present. The gift of a pair of gloves was at one time a perquisite of those who performed small services, such as pleading your cause, arbitrating your quarrel, or showing you some favour which could not be charged for. As the services became more important, the glove was lined with money, or made to contain some coin called glove money (q.v.). Relics of this ancient custom were common till the last quarter of a century in the presentation of gloves to those who attended weddings and funerals. There also existed at one time the claim of a pair of gloves by a lady who chose to salute a gentleman caught napping in her company. In The Fair Maid of Perth, by Sir Walter Scott, Catherine steals from her chamber on St. Valentine's morn, and, catching Henry Smith asleep, gives him a kiss. The glover says to him: "Come into the booth with me, my son, and I will furnish thee with a fitting theme. Thou knowest the maiden who ventures to kiss a sleeping man wins of him a pair of gloves." - Chap. v. In the next chapter Henry presents the gloves, and Catherine accepts them. A round with gloves. A friendly contest; a fight with gloves. "Will you point out how this is going to be a Genteel round with gloves?" - Watson: The Web of The Spider, chap. ix. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | GLOVES. To give any one a pair of gloves; to make them a present or bribe. To win a pair of gloves; to kiss a man whilst he sleeps: for this a pair of gloves is due to any lady who will thus earn them. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A glove (Middle English from Old English glof) is a type of garment which covers the hand. Gloves have separate sheaths or openings for each finger and the thumb; if there is an opening but no covering sheath for each finger they are called "fingerless gloves". Hand garments without separate finger openings or sheaths are called "mittens".
Gloves can serve to protect and comfort the hands of the wearer against cold, physical damage by friction or abrasion, and disease; or in turn to provide a guard for what a bare hand should not touch. Fingerless gloves are useful for cold environments where dexterity is required that gloves would restrict. Cigarette smokerss and church organists often use fingerless gloves. Some gloves include a gauntlet that extends partway up the arm.
Gloves have been made of many materials including cloth, knitted or felted wool, leather, rubber, latex, and metal (as in chain mail).
Today gloves are made around the world. Most expensive women's gloves are still made in France, with some made in Canada. For cheaper male gloves New York State, especially Gloversville, New York is still a world centre of glove manufacturing. More and more glove manufacturing is being done in east Asia, however.
History
Gloves appear to be of great antiquity. According to some translations of Homer's, The Odyssey, Laërtes is described as wearing gloves while walking in his garden so as to avoid the brambles. (Other translations, however, insist that Laertes pulled his long sleeves over his hands.) Herodotus, in The History of Herodotus (440 BC), tells how Leotychides was incriminated by a glove (gauntlet) full of silver that he received as a bribe. Among the Romans also there are occasional references to the use of gloves. According to Pliny the Younger (ca. 100), his uncle's shorthand writer wore gloves during the winter so as not to impede the elder Pliny's work.
Gloves are also used for fashion, ceremonial, and religious purposes. British and European Ladies in the 13th century began to wear gloves as fashion ornaments. They were made of linen and silk and sometimes reached to the elbow. It was not until the 16th century that they reached their greatest elaboration, however, when Queen Elizabeth set the fashion for wearing them richly embroidered and jeweled.
Embroidered and jeweled gloves also formed part of the insignia of emperors and kings. Thus Matthew of Paris, in recording the burial of Henry II of England in 1189, mentions that be was buried in his coronation robes with a golden crown on his head and gloves on his hands. Gloves were also found on the hands of King John when his tomb was opened in 1797 and on those of King Edward I when his tomb was opened in 1774.
Pontifical gloves are liturgical ornaments used primarily by the pope, the cardinals, and bishops. They may be worn only at the celebration of mass. The liturgical use of gloves has not been traced beyond the beginning of the 10th century, and their introduction may have been due to a simple desire to keep the hands clean for the holy mysteries, but others suggest that they were adopted as part of the increasing pomp with which the Carolingian bishops were surrounding themselves. From the Frankish kingdom the custom spread to Rome, where liturgical gloves are first heard of in the earlier half of the 11th century.
External sources and references
- Pliny the Younger: Selected Letters
- The History of Herodotus by Herodotus, Volume VI, at classics.mit.edu
- 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. A significant source of this Wikipedia article; there's much information still to be included.
Specialized Gloves
- Archer's glove
- Baseball glove: in baseball, the players in the field wear gloves to help them to catch the ball and prevent injury to their hands.
- Bicyclist's glove
- Billiards glove
- Cyberglove
- Falconer's glove
- Gardener's glove
- Hockey goalie catch glove
- Welder's glove
- Yachting glove
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Glove."
Synonym: GlovesSynonym: glove (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Difficulty | Difficult to deal with, hard to deal with; ill-conditioned, crabbed, crabby; not to be handled with kid gloves, not made with rose water. |
Uncleanness | Adjective: dirty, filthy, grimy; unclean, impure; soiled; Verb: not to be handled with kid gloves; dusty, snuffy, smutty, sooty, smoky; thick, turbid, dreggy; slimy; mussy. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The last time I had a pap smear, the guy needed leather gloves and an oyster shucker (There's Something About Mary; writing credit: Ed Decter; John J. Strauss) They're not kid gloves, Mr. Valiant (Who Framed Roger Rabbit; writing credit: Gary K. Wolf; Jeffrey Price) Plus you get to wear those neat, long gloves! (Caroline in the City; writing credit: Angela Carneiro) Yeah, well, uh, just keep your Power Gloves off her, pal, huh (The Wizard; writing credit: David Chisholm) Okay, the gloves are off and the claws are on (InHumanoids; writing credit: Flint Dille) | |
Lyrics | Fancy gloves, oh, wears old MacHeath, babe (Mack The Knife; performing artist: Bobby Darin) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Gloves On the Go Go (1967) Golden Gloves (1961) Wonder Gloves (1951) The Golden Gloves Story (1950) Leather Gloves (1948) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
References | |||
Books | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Shown is a lab technician performing a step in the estrogen receptor assay test. She is seen with a test tube containing some frozen breast tissue, inserted in a beaker of ice water. She is readying the tube for mixing. The tube is being attached to the appropriate machinery. The technician, wearing rubber gloves and a white lab coat is not visible in all slides. This test determines whether antiestrogen drugs or removal of ovaries is likely to be the effective therapy. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |  | Pictured is a laboratory setting. A technician wearing a white lab coat and head covering, rubber gloves, is holding a large glass roller bottle and looking into it. A red liquid is visible in the tilted roller bottle. This process is the growing of monoclonal antibodies. They can be grown in unlimited quantities in bottles in the lab. Several shots available. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). |
 | AX-5 Spacesuit Gloves. Credit: NASA. |  | Gloves for relief workers at the World Trade Center. |
 | Wearing gloves, mask and other protection are part of handling farm chemicals safely. Credit: Tim McCabe. |  | Fox Gloves (digatalis pupurea). Credit: D. Smurthwaite. |
 | U.S. Army, Kennedy General Hospital, Memphis, TN. : Interior view of rubber gloves on wallrack. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | U. S. Army Base Hospital Number 21, Rouen, France. : Operating room with two red cross nurses mending rubber gloves. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Photographed in 1918 at Norfolk, Virginia. She is wearing the uniform coat-cape turned back on her shoulders to show the Norfolk jacket. She is also wearing gloves. Credit: NAVY. |  | Reading in his quarters on Adak, Aleutian Islands, 14 May 1943. Note his leather jacket, galoshes, and fleece-lined gloves resting atop his cap. Credit: NAVY. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Feelings and gloves" by Robert Horvath Commentary: "No comment." | "Gloves" by Carlos Gustavo Curado Commentary: "Simple pair of gloves closeup." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption |
 | Doctor putting on latex gloves. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Alice in Wonderland | Carroll, Lewis | Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | It would be a mistake to write to Liege for corks or to Pau for gloves. |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | Uncle John fingered a pair of canvas gloves with yellow leather palms, tried them on and took them off and laid them down |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Wash your hands after taking off the gloves. (references) | |
Wear gloves if you have to touch anyone's blood. (references) | ||
If you must clean up after a pet, use disposable gloves. (references) | ||
Business | Japan competes with the U.S. in sales of CCTV, gloves, locks, padlocks, and safes. (references) | |
Regarding worker protection equipment, most demanded are shoes, gloves, glasses, ear and respiratory protectors. (references) | ||
However, for safety equipment (including items such as shoes, gloves, helmets, masks, etc.), the market is well served by domestic firms that supply around 65 percent of the demand. (references) | ||
Economic History | Vietnam | Only low-end safety/security items are produced locally (locks, safes, safety gloves, ropes, etc). (references) |
Pakistan | The recent growth of the industry is due in large part to its successful progression from the export of raw hides and skins and semi-processed leather towards high value-added finished leathers and leather products (including leather jackets, gloves, footwear, and sporting goods). (references) | |
Political Economy | TAIWAN | Industrial products such as air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, electric hand tools, and synthetic rubber gloves must undergo redundant and unnecessary testing requirements, which include destructive testing of samples. (references) |
Trade | Jamaica | An amendment was made to CBI provisions in 1990 (CBI II) allowing duty reduction on certain leather-related products, including handbags, luggage, flat goods, work gloves, and wearing apparel. (references) |
Philippines | Labels are not mandatory for special items made of textiles, such as narrow fabrics, artificial flowers, purses, doilies, bags, hats, belts, gloves, and other garments or clothing accessories not specified above. (references) | |
Jamaica | CBI has provided customs duty-free entry to the United States to qualifying products of Jamaican origin (except textiles, footwear, handbags, luggage, work gloves, leather apparel, tuna fish, petroleum and petroleum products, and watches and watch parts from countries that do not enjoy Most Favored Nation status). (references) | |
Worker Rights | Belarus | Workers at many heavy machinery plants do not wear even minimal safety gear, such as gloves, hard hats, or welding glasses. (references) |
Panama | In several plantations, indigenous workers were not provided with shelters, sanitary or cooking facilities, or fresh water; they also did not have machetes or gloves for their work. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Dennis Miller | Why not exchange those boxing gloves with bags of broken glass. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Gloves" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 97.53% of the time. "Gloves" is used about 768 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (plural) | 97.53% | 749 | 9,103 |
| Lexical Verb (-s form) | 2.34% | 18 | 82,615 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.13% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 768 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "gloves": boxing gloves ♦ handle smb. with velvet gloves ♦ handle with kid gloves ♦ industrial gloves ♦ kid gloves ♦ not to be handled with kid gloves ♦ pair of gloves ♦ protective gloves ♦ surgical gloves ♦ To handle without gloves ♦ treat with kid gloves ♦ with the gloves off ♦ without gloves. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "gloves": gloves-off. | |
Ending with "gloves": boxing-gloves, kid-gloves, oven-gloves, welding-gloves. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
baseball gloves | 1,676 | driving gloves | 118 |
gloves | 1,525 | football gloves | 114 |
bike gloves | 660 | hockey gloves | 111 |
body gloves | 650 | weight lifting gloves | 105 |
boxing gloves | 439 | gloves safety | 105 |
latex gloves | 355 | vinyl gloves | 103 |
white gloves | 353 | gloves box | 100 |
softball gloves | 330 | body gloves swim wear | 93 |
leather gloves | 280 | golden gloves | 93 |
motorcycle gloves | 280 | wedding gloves | 92 |
golf gloves | 271 | mizuno baseball gloves | 88 |
rawlings baseball gloves | 207 | gloves welding | 84 |
club gloves | 169 | rawlings gloves | 78 |
work gloves | 165 | bridal gloves | 77 |
rubber gloves | 161 | opera gloves | 76 |
nitrile gloves | 141 | nike baseball gloves | 74 |
goal keeper gloves | 139 | grenade gloves | 70 |
batting gloves | 136 | gloves cotton | 67 |
disposable gloves | 127 | nokona baseball gloves | 64 |
winter gloves | 124 | fox gloves | 58 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "gloves"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | trajtoj me shumë kujdes (handle with kid gloves). (various references) | |
Arabic | القفاز الجدي (kid gloves). (various references) | |
Asturian | guantes. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | ръкавици от шевро (kid gloves, kids). (various references) | |
Cebuano | gwantes. (various references) | |
Chamorro | guantes. (various references) | |
Chinese | 手套 (Glove). (various references) | |
Czech | rukavice(prstové). (various references) | |
Danish | handsker. (various references) | |
Dutch | handschoenen. (various references) | |
Ecuadorian Quechua | maquicara. (various references) | |
Faeroese | handskar. (various references) | |
Finnish | glaseehansikkaat (kid gloves), talouskäsineet (rubber gloves), lääkärinkäsineet (surgeon's gloves), kaksi paria hansikkaita (two pairs of gloves). (various references) | |
French | gants (fingered glove). (various references) | |
Frisian | wanten. (various references) | |
German | Handschuhe. (various references) | |
Greek | γάντια. (various references) | |
Hebrew | לנהוג ברכות (treat with kid gloves). (various references) | |
Hungarian | frottírkesztyű (friction gloves), edényfogó (oven gloves, oven mitts, potholder), dörzskesztyű (friction gloves). (various references) | |
Inuktitut | akgaak. (various references) | |
Italian | guanti. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 革手袋 (leather gloves), 軍手 (army cotton gloves). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ぐんて (army cotton gloves), かわてぶくろ (leather gloves). (various references) | |
Korean | 장갑 (Glove). (various references) | |
Macedonian | rakavici. (various references) | |
Manx | laueanyn-doarney (boxing gloves), laueanyn markee (riding gloves), laueanyn mannan (kid gloves). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ovesglay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | luvas. (various references) | |
Portuguese Brazilian | luvas. (various references) | |
Provencal | gants. (various references) | |
Romanian | mãnuşi de box (boxing gloves). (various references) | |
Romany | vastèskeri. (various references) | |
Russian | осторожно (carefully, cautiously, choicely, deliberately, easy does it, gently, gingerly, guardedly, in kid gloves, look out, reservedly, warily, with care, with kid gloves, with reserve), нитяные перчатки (fabric gloves), мягко (blandly, gently, in kid gloves, softly, with kid gloves), лайковые перчатки (kid gloves, kids). (various references) | |
Samoan | totigilima. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | rukavice (mittens). (various references) | |
Spanish | guantes, los guantes. (various references) | |
Swedish | skyddshandskar (protective gloves), operationshandskar (surgeon's gloves), behandla med silkesvantar (handle with kid gloves), arbetshandskar (protective gloves). (various references) | |
Turkish | yumuşak davranmak (handle with kid gloves), tatlılıkla idare etmek (handle with kid gloves), mertçe (bravely, honestly, manfully, manly, nobly, with the gloves off, without gloves), delikanlı gibi (straightforwardly, with the gloves off, without gloves), çok hassas davranmak (handle smb. with velvet gloves). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | manicis. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "gloves": foxgloves, ungloves. (additional references) | |
| |
"Gloves" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Geldofs, Gleaves, glive, gloaves, glodes, glotes, glouve, gloveds, gloven, glovey, goves. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "gloves" (pronounced glu"vz) |
| 4 | -l u" v z | loves, luvs. |
| 3 | -u" v z | doves, shoves. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-g-l-o-s-v" | |
-1 letter: glove, loges, loves, ogles, solve, voles. | |
-2 letters: egos, gels, goes, legs, levo, loge, logs, lose, love, ogle, oles, sego, sloe, slog, sole, voes, vole. | |
-3 letters: ego, els, gel, gos, leg, lev, log, oes, ole, ose, seg, sel, sol, veg, voe. | |
-4 letters: el, es, go, lo, oe, os, so. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-g-l-o-s-v" | |
+1 letter: glovers, grovels, lovages. | |
+2 letters: aasvogel, lovebugs, ungloves, voltages, vorlages. | |
+3 letters: aasvogels, foxgloves, gavelocks, grovelers, longevous, megavolts, overgilds, resolving, shoveling, travelogs. | |
+4 letters: evildoings, grievously, longleaves, lovingness, novelising, overglazes, overlights, overslaugh, shovelling, virologies. | |
+5 letters: avgolemonos, levigations, longevities, lovemakings, observingly, overflights, oversalting, overselling, overslaughs, sovereignly, sugarloaves, travelogues, vainglories. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Spoken | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
