“Glamour” and “Grammar” are essentially the same word. In classical Greek and Latin, “grammar” (from the Greek “grammatikos,” meaning “of letters”) covered the whole of arts and letters, i.e., high knowledge in general. In the Middle Ages, “grammar” was generally used to mean “learning,” which at the time included, at least in the popular imagination, a knowledge of magic. The narrowing of “grammar” to mean “the rules of language” was a much later development…

Meanwhile, “grammar” had percolated into Scottish English (as “gramarye”), where an “l” was substiuted for an “r” and the word eventually became “glamour,” used to mean specifically knowledge of magic and spells.

That comes from The Glamour of Grammar by Roy Clark. Reviewed in the Times‘ weekend Book Review, I pulled it down to my Kindle right away. (Yes, really.)

I’m a fan of Clark’s earlier book, Writing Tools. Unfortunately the new book added little but took away much. More showy and leisurely, and longer to the point. I think it’s supposed to be more fun to read, but it seemed to try too hard.

See other books on writing I’ve recommended in the past.