Other forms: glistening, glistens, glistened
To glisten is to shine as wet things do. Glisten with sweat, the wet road glistened, eyes glistening.
Wetness is the point: glistening is the shine of a film of liquid, which is why it suits sweat, tears, rain and oil and does not suit a polished coin. It is softer than glitter, which sparkles, and steadier than glimmer, which is faint. Note the silent t, and that the word is Old English.
1verbglistenTo shine as wet things do.
“The wet streets glistened under the street lamps after the rain.”
glisten is a shining.
Old English glisnian belongs to a large Germanic family of gl- words about light. Glitter, gleam and glow are relatives.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰley-
Proto-Germanic
*glisnōną
Proto-West Germanic
*glisnōn
Old English
glisnian
Middle English
glisnen
English, today
glisten
From Middle English glisnen, glistnen, from Old English glisnian, itself from Proto-West Germanic glisnōn, while ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic glisnōną.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA