the.com/glance

means To glance is to look quickly and briefly at something, or to strike a surface and bounce off at an angle.

from Glance traces to Middle English glacen, 'to graze or strike obliquely,' borrowed from Old French glacier, 'to slip or slide' — itself rooted in the slipperiness of ice (think glace, the French for ice or glassy glaze). The word's modern sense of a fleeting look grew from this idea of something sliding past rather than landing squarely: the eye, like a stone skipping water, touches and moves on. It was likely nudged along by a cousin word, the old verb glent, 'to dart or gleam,' which lent it a flash of brightness.