Other forms: gleaned, gleaning, gleans
To glean is to pick up small pieces of information here and there. Glean what you can, gleaned from reports, glean a little.
The original is agricultural: gleaning was gathering the grain left after the harvest, and it was a right of the poor in many places. The figurative sense keeps the sense of picking up what others left.
1verbgleanTo pick up small pieces of information here and there.
“From chatting with the neighbours, I gleaned that the house had been empty for years.”
glean is a gathering.
Old French glener means to gather grain left after harvest, from Late Latin glennare.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰleh₁- — to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining
Proto-Celtic
*glanos — clean; clear
Latin
glenare
Old French
glener
Middle English
glenen — to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect
English, today
glean
Built from
The verb is derived from Late Middle English glenen (“to gather (heads of grain left by reapers), glean; to gather (things) together, collect”), from Old French glener, glainer (modern French glaner (“to gather, glean”)), from Latin glenare, the present active infinitive of glenō (“to make a collection”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from cel-gau -, from Proto-Celtic glanos (“clean; clear”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵʰleh₁- (“to glow, shine; to be glowing or shining”). The noun is derived from Late Middle English glene (“collection of heads of grain gathered by gleaning; head of grain”), from Old French glene, glane (“act of gleaning; legal right to glean”) (modern French glane (“act of gleaning”)), from glener, glainer: see above. Cognate with Medieval Latin glana, glena (“bundle of ears of grain”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA