Nous sommes le
18 Pluviôse, An 214
Grimoire is an ancient French doublet of grammaire (often written long ago with one m) ; in the Middle Ages, the illiterate masses took the grammarian for a sorcerer ; a grimoire was a magician's text, a spell book; taken into English, the word became gramarye, signifying magic; but in a Nippon-like development, the r somehow transformed itself in English mouths into an l, thus giving rise to the word glamour, meaning charm, enchantment, magic.
Who now, alas, thinks of grammar as glamorous!
--Les Mots du français, by Albert Hamon, with thanks to Martine Rousseau and Olivier Houdart, correcteurs of Le Monde (see link)
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