Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

What purpose does "gleeking" serve?

What purpose does "gleeking" serve? Where is the word derived from? And do you even know what I'm talking about?

-- Brian, Clairemont

Sponsored
Sponsored

As if things weren't crazy enough around here, we're wearing rain ponchos all day, and Grandma Alice is busy covering the place with drop cloths. I try to keep questions like this out of the elves' hands so they don't get ideas in their heads, but I guess the system broke down this time. For the last week Alice Acres has been one big gleekathon, and we're not happy about it.

For anyone not up on weird, gross schoolkid pranks, gleeking is an advanced form of spitting. It's popular coast to coast and has been for decades, I'm told. Many of us have gleeked accidentally, but apparently if you find a mentor to give you instruction and you abandon homework and all other activities, you can eventually train yourself to gleek at will. Gleeking is spraying saliva from under your tongue. It comes out in a mist, not the traditional, unimaginative glob. And I can hear you all now -- Hey, Matt, how is this possible? You lift up your tongue and spray saliva? Tell me more!

You know how sometimes, especially when you get a yawn attack and you bust out in a big old gaper that just takes over your face, sometimes saliva spurts out of your mouth? Well, that's gleeking. Your jaw and mouth have dozens of muscles, and sometimes you'll be doing some mouth thing and hit just the right combination and you'll squeeze the ducts that run out of your sublingual salivary glands. Ordinarily the ducts just sit there passively like water pipes while the glands ooze out saliva to keep our mouths juicy. Squeezing them forces the saliva out in a spray; we can't gleek again until they refill.

So to answer your "what's the purpose?" question, there's no purpose. At least not physiologically. Sociologically there's no real purpose either, I guess, except to amaze your friends and gross them out and get lots of laughs. Where the word comes from is probably unanswerable. But of course, that won't stop me.

"Gleeking" is a word you'll find in a couple of Shakespeare's plays. It's been around in print since the 1500s. Consider Henry V, Act 5, Scene 1 -- "I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice." What it meant in Bill's time was teasing or tricking or making fun of someone. ("Galling" is a harsher form of teasing, more like harassment.) Even though there's some vague similarity between gleeking in the 16th Century and gleeking today, it's unlikely that the old word is related to the 20th-century fad. There was a cartoon character named Gleek on the popular Superfriends show, but kids discovered gleeking long before the cartoon hit the airwaves, so no help there. Where the name came from is as much a mystery as why anybody would bother to learn to do it.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dia de los Muertos Celebration, Love Thy Neighbor(Hood): Food & Art Exploration

Events November 2-November 6, 2024
Next Article

Morricone Youth, Berkley Hart, Dark Entities, Black Heart Procession, Monsters Of Hip-Hop

Live movie soundtracks, birthdays and more in Balboa Park, Grantville, Oceanside, Little Italy

What purpose does "gleeking" serve? Where is the word derived from? And do you even know what I'm talking about?

-- Brian, Clairemont

Sponsored
Sponsored

As if things weren't crazy enough around here, we're wearing rain ponchos all day, and Grandma Alice is busy covering the place with drop cloths. I try to keep questions like this out of the elves' hands so they don't get ideas in their heads, but I guess the system broke down this time. For the last week Alice Acres has been one big gleekathon, and we're not happy about it.

For anyone not up on weird, gross schoolkid pranks, gleeking is an advanced form of spitting. It's popular coast to coast and has been for decades, I'm told. Many of us have gleeked accidentally, but apparently if you find a mentor to give you instruction and you abandon homework and all other activities, you can eventually train yourself to gleek at will. Gleeking is spraying saliva from under your tongue. It comes out in a mist, not the traditional, unimaginative glob. And I can hear you all now -- Hey, Matt, how is this possible? You lift up your tongue and spray saliva? Tell me more!

You know how sometimes, especially when you get a yawn attack and you bust out in a big old gaper that just takes over your face, sometimes saliva spurts out of your mouth? Well, that's gleeking. Your jaw and mouth have dozens of muscles, and sometimes you'll be doing some mouth thing and hit just the right combination and you'll squeeze the ducts that run out of your sublingual salivary glands. Ordinarily the ducts just sit there passively like water pipes while the glands ooze out saliva to keep our mouths juicy. Squeezing them forces the saliva out in a spray; we can't gleek again until they refill.

So to answer your "what's the purpose?" question, there's no purpose. At least not physiologically. Sociologically there's no real purpose either, I guess, except to amaze your friends and gross them out and get lots of laughs. Where the word comes from is probably unanswerable. But of course, that won't stop me.

"Gleeking" is a word you'll find in a couple of Shakespeare's plays. It's been around in print since the 1500s. Consider Henry V, Act 5, Scene 1 -- "I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice." What it meant in Bill's time was teasing or tricking or making fun of someone. ("Galling" is a harsher form of teasing, more like harassment.) Even though there's some vague similarity between gleeking in the 16th Century and gleeking today, it's unlikely that the old word is related to the 20th-century fad. There was a cartoon character named Gleek on the popular Superfriends show, but kids discovered gleeking long before the cartoon hit the airwaves, so no help there. Where the name came from is as much a mystery as why anybody would bother to learn to do it.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Big swordfish, big marlin, and big money

Trout opener at Santee Lakes
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Goose may have indie vibes, but they’re still a jam band

Fans turn out in force for show at SDSU
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader