Probably from Old Norse 'glotta' (to grin scornfully) — originally 'to stare with greed,' now 'to feel smug satisfaction.'
To dwell on one's own success or another's misfortune with smugness or malicious pleasure.
Probably from Old Norse 'glotta' (to grin, to smile scornfully) or related to Middle High German 'glotzen' (to stare), from Proto-Germanic '*glut-' (to stare, to gape). The original English meaning was 'to stare with greedy or malicious eyes' — the visual act of gazing at something you have taken or at someone else's loss. The shift from 'to stare maliciously' to 'to feel smug satisfaction' happened by the 18th century, internalizing the external action. Key roots: *glut- (Proto-Germanic: "to stare, to gape").
The original gloat was a look, not a feeling — to gloat was to stare fixedly at something with greedy or malicious satisfaction. The word preserved the Norse emphasis on the visual: 'glotta' meant to grin scornfully, showing teeth. Over time, English shifted the word from the outward expression (the staring