![\"Glas\u00f6gon\"](\"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/glasseyes.gif\")
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Recently I learnt an interesting word in Swedish – glas\u00f6gon<\/strong>, which means glasses or spectacles, and literally means “glass eyes”. <\/p>\n Glas<\/strong> means glass, and comes from the Proto-Germanic *glas\u0105<\/em> (glass), from the Proto-Indo-European *\u01f5\u02b0el-<\/em> (to shine, shimmer, glow) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n \u00d6gon<\/strong> is the plural of \u00f6ga<\/em> (eye), and comes from the Old Swedish \u00f8\u0304gha<\/em> (eye), from Old Norse auga<\/em> (eye), from Proto-Germanic *aug\u00f4<\/em> (eye), from Proto-Indo-European *h\u2083ek\u02b7-<\/em> (eye; to see) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n The Swedish word glas<\/strong> reminds me of the Russian word for eye, \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0437<\/strong> (glaz), which I remember by thinking of a glass eye. \u0413\u043b\u0430\u0437<\/strong> comes from the Old East Slavic \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0437\u044a<\/em> (glaz\u016d – ball, eye), from the Proto-Slavic *glaz\u044a<\/em> (ball), from Proto-Indo-European *g(\u02b0)el-<\/em> (round, spherical, stone) [source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n The Russian word for glasses is \u043e\u0447\u043a\u0438<\/strong> (ochki), which comes from \u043e\u0447\u0438<\/em> (ochi), the plural of \u043e\u043a\u043e<\/em> (oko), the old Russian word for eye, which comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root as \u00f6ga<\/em> and eye [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n In Danish and Norwegian, the word for glasses is briller<\/strong>, which means ‘a person wearing glasses’ in Dutch, and to shine or sparkle in French [source<\/a>]. The German word for glasses is simliar – Brille<\/strong>, and the Dutch is bril<\/strong> [source<\/a>]. <\/p>\n Briller<\/strong>, Brille<\/strong> and bril<\/strong> come from the Middle High German berillus<\/em> (beryl), from the Latin beryllus<\/em> (beryl), probably from the Ancient Greek \u03b2\u03ae\u03c1\u03c5\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2<\/em> (b\u1e17rullos – beryl), from Sanskrit \u0935\u0948\u0921\u0942\u0930\u094d\u092f (vaidurya – a cat’s eye gem; a jewel), from Dravidian. Probably named after the city Velur (modern day Belur \/ \u0cac\u0cc7\u0cb2\u0cc2\u0cb0\u0cc1<\/a>) in Karnataka in southern India. The first glasses, made in about 1300 in Italy, were made from beryl [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n