Make Your Point: GLISSADE

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pronounce GLISSADE:

gliss ODD

connect this word to others:

As we check out the beautiful word glissade, see if you can recall another term that can also be a ballet move:

An ar_b______ is something full of beauty, complexity, and embellishment, as if flowing with many graceful lines.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

(Source)

In the 1800s, we took "glissade" into English from the French glisser, meaning "to slip or slide down an icy or snow mountain, or to slide smoothly to one side while dancing."

Those are the two meanings we use in English, too.

In other words, a glissade is a slippery slide down a slope, or a graceful sliding movement of the feet.

And to glissade is to slide down a slippery slope, or to slide gracefully along with the feet.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Both a noun ("We watched their glissades") and a verb ("They glissaded across the stage").

Other forms:

The plural is "glissades," and the other verb forms are "glissaded" and "glissading."

how to use it:

"Glissade" is rare but easy to understand. It's startling and beautiful, so pick it when you want to call special attention to your idea.

Say that someone or something glissades somewhere: "They glissade down the hill;" "He glissaded across the stage;" "The memory glissades through my mind."

examples:

"[The School of American Ballet] carried out an 'end-of-year culling...' and after three years there, she was expelled. In the book, she glissades past this defining moment, which I would have liked to see her hold for a few more counts."
— Kimberly Schaye, Washington Post, 14 March 2023

"[The fog] was pouring downward—pouring itself downward—in a glorious, relentless glissade over the meadow slopes on a straight path for the village."
— Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer, 2017

has this page helped you understand "glissade"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "glissade" without saying "glide" or "slide."

try it out:

So far, we've focused mostly on the balletic kind of glissading. Let's turn toward the mountain-climbing kind. Or rather, the mountain-sliding kind.

(Source)

Here's Andrew Lock:

"I was too tired to stand up and climb down the ramp. The only option was to glissade. This meant sitting in the snow and sliding forward, like on a slippery dip, using my ice axe as a brake by my side. It was fraught with danger because I could easily lose control, gain too much speed and rocket off the side of the ramp, out into the void. I recalled that David Hume, my teammate on the 1993 Everest expedition, had been killed on Makalu in 1995 doing exactly what I was proposing, glissading. And he'd tried it in daylight, in good conditions."

With this description of glissading in mind, talk about whether or not you'd ever try it.

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for August is "Degrees of Venndom."

I'll give you a pair of terms, and you decide how Venn-diagrammable they are. It's harder than it sounds! To see my suggested answer, scroll all the way down. Your response doesn't need to match mine; you should just be able to defend yours.

Try this today: At what degree of Venndom do MOUNTAIN and VOLCANO exist?

4th degree: these terms never overlap, like DOG and CAT.

3rd degree: these terms are nested, with one term always the other but not vice versa, like KITTEN and CAT.

2nd degree: these terms sometimes overlap, like PET and MAMMAL.

1st degree: these terms always overlap, like CAT and FELINE.

review this word:

1. One opposite of GLISSADE is

A. GALUMPH: to move clumsily.
B. GLUT: to overstuff yourself.
C. GRAPPLE: to struggle to deal with something.

2. In the context of outdoor adventuring, in the words of Karen Nitkin, glissading is "basically _____."

A. long-hauling
B. butt-sliding
C. distance-yodeling

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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