gloss
UK /ɡlɒs/ · US /ɡlɔs/ noun, verb
Forms glosses glossing glossed
- noun A surface shine or luster.
- noun (figuratively) A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance.
- verb (transitive) To give a gloss or sheen to.
- verb (transitive) To make (something) attractive by deception
- verb (intransitive) To become shiny.
- verb (transitive, idiomatic) Used in a phrasal verb: gloss over (“to cover up a mistake or crime, to treat something with less care than it deserves”).
- noun (countable) A brief explanatory note or translation of a foreign, archaic, technical, difficult, complex, or uncommon expression, inserted after the original, in the margin of a document, or between lines of a text.
- noun (countable) Synonym of glossary, a collection of such notes.
- noun (countable, obsolete) An expression requiring such explanatory treatment.
- noun (countable) An extensive commentary on some text.
- noun (countable, law, US) An interpretation by a court of a specific point within a statute or case law.
- noun (lexicography) A definition or explanation of a word sense.
- verb (transitive) To add a gloss to (a text).
Synonyms
brilliance gleam luster sheen shine façade front veneer polish gloze annotation glossary commentary discourse discussion annotate mark up rubric glossiness burnish semblance color colour comment
Etymology
Probably from a North Germanic language, compare Icelandic glossi (“spark, flame”), glossa (“to flame”); or perhaps from dialectal Dutch gloos (“a glow, flare”), related to West Frisian gloeze (“a glow”), Middle Low German glȫsen (“to smoulder, glow”), German glosen (“to smoulder”); ultimately from Proto-Germanic *glus- (“to glow, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel- (“to flourish; be green or yellow”). More at glow.
From Middle English glosse, alteration of glose, from Old French glose, from Late Latin glōssa (“obsolete or foreign word requiring explanation”), from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, “language”). Doublet of glossa and gloze.
An alteration of Middle English glosen after Etymology 2, from Old French gloser; compare Medieval Latin glossāre.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Bbrightness or luster of a body proceeding from a smooth surface; polish; as, the gloss of silk; cloth is calendered to give it a gloss.
- noun A specious appearance; superficial quality or show.
- verb To give a superficial luster or gloss to; to make smooth and shining; as, to gloss cloth.
- noun A foreign, archaic, technical, or other uncommon word requiring explanation. [Obs.]
Etymology [Cf. Icel. glossi a blaze, glys finery, MHG. glosen to glow, G. glosten to glimmer; perh. akin to E. glass.]
Etymology [OE. glose, F. glose, L. glossa a difficult word needing explanation, fr. Gr. Gloze, Glossary, Glottis.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gloss”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details