Word Confusion: Glutenous vs Glutinous vs Gluttonous

Posted February 13, 2017 by Kathy Davie in Author Resources, Self-Editing, Word Confusions, Writing

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One can feel glutinous if one is gluttonous with glutenous food products, so it does behoove one to pace oneself.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Glutenous	Glutinous	Gluttonous
Freshly Baked Bread Loaves by Flickr.com user “FotoDawg” is under the CC BY 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — Mmmm, glutenous bread . . . yum . . .	Mango with Sticky Rice is techistoria’s own work under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — I do adore mango with glutinous rice as a dessert!!	Der Völler, 1804, gouache on paper by Georg Emanuel Opiz was photographed by Beurret and Bailly and is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. — He is a gluttonous man.
Part of Grammar:
Adjective	Adjective	Adjective
Like the tough, viscid, nitrogenous substance remaining when the flour of wheat or other grain is washed to remove the starch (gluten) Containing gluten, especially in large amounts	Like glue in texture Sticky	Excessively greedy Tending to eat and drink excessively Voracious Insatiable
Examples:
“The shell split and a clear liquid poured out on to the drain board, thin and clear, not glutenous like a normal egg white” (Raphael). “As it lay so glutenous, the Earth Mother was also quickened to show sympathy” (Brown). Thank goodness those advertisers are letting us know that milk is not glutenous eye roll.	It was a nasty, glutinous mud that sucked boots off one’s feet. Helena tries hard, but her cooking usually results in a glutinous mass. Tom hadn’t cleaned up the oil he spilled, and it had dried to a glutinous tackiness. On the plus side, glutinous rice is not glutenous.	He was a gluttonous, cigar-smoking capitalist. We were a gluttonous bunch last Christmas. “So the pirate-wasp sought its reward — an insane, insatiable, gluttonous satisfaction in the honey that was poison to its young” (Leinster).
Derivatives:
Adjective: nonglutenous	Adjective: unglutinous Adverb: glutinously, unglutinously Noun: glutinousness, glutinosity, unglutinosity	Adjective: ungluttonous Adverb: gluttonously Noun: glutton, gluttonousness, gluttony Verb: gluttonize
History of the Word:
The first known use was in the 14th century, gluten + -ous.	Late Middle English from the Old French glutineux or the Latin glutinosus, from gluten meaning glue.	Middle English from the Old French gluton, is from the Latin glutton-, and is related to gluttire meaning to swallow, gluttus meaning greedy, and gula meaning throat.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

Satisfy your curiosity about other Word Confusions on its homepage or more generally explore the index of self-editing posts. You may also want to explore Book Layout & Formatting Ideas, Formatting Tips, Grammar Explanations, Linguistics, Publishing Tips, the Properly Punctuated, Writing Ideas and Resources, and Working Your Website.

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