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What's the meaning of the word glib?

English Language & Usage Asked on August 28, 2021

I’ve been studying English for a lot of time and if there’s a word that I’ve always struggled to understand, this word is "glib". I’ve read multiple definitions of this word on various dictionaries, but I still can’t fully get it.

CED has, for instance,

glib: speaking or spoken in a confident way, but without careful thought or honesty:

  • No one was convinced by his glib answers/explanations.

Collins Cobuild , on the other hand, gives:

glib: If you describe what someone says as glib, you disapprove of it because it implies that something is simple or easy, or that there
are no problems involved, when this is not the case.

So, the word glib is usually defined as a way of talking that is smooth, ready, fluent, confident, smart, easy … but that at the same time do not show much thought, it’s shallow, trivializing, lacks understanding … To me this is ever so confusing. It seems that these two things don’t go well together. I wouldn’t use it for example to define the way that a salesperson talks, since I wouldn’t say that it lacks understanding and that it doesn’t show much thoughts.

I mean, it seems to be referring to someone that is very well-spoken, has the gift of gab, silver-tongued … so everything that I would associate to being clever, competent, knowledgeable … but instead they are flippant, facile and maybe even dim.

Did I get it? Maybe I’m puzzled because in my native tongue, that’s Italian, I can’t find nothing that is quite the same. I would be very grateful to whoever will provide me with some examples of ways of talking that you guys find to be glib.

Thank you!

One Answer

A good question. Showing dictionary definitions (which should accompany the question) would in itself not resolve this. Polysemy and perhaps hypernymy is going on.

Perhaps Merriam-Webster best illustrates the problem (I've re-ordered to help a logical approach) (and note that the speaker or what they say may be labelled glib):

Definition of glib

  • 1a: showing little forethought or preparation : OFFHAND glib answers

  • c: lacking depth and substance : SUPERFICIAL

  • b: marked by ease and informality : NONCHALANT glib solutions to knotty problems

So (a) not given what others might consider necessary forethought and/or (b) lacking depth and real substance (probably, if applicable, as a consequence of (a)) and/or marked by ease of speaking or decision-making (an obviously somewhat misleading skill, if senses (a) and (b) also apply).

These senses are conflated, with perhaps a hint at temporal re-ordering (fluency leading to sloppiness), in M-W's sense (2):

  • 2: marked by ease and fluency in speaking or writing often to the point of being insincere or deceitful a glib politician

Correct answer by Edwin Ashworth on August 28, 2021

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