gloss

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See also: gloss- and gloss.

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

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.

Noun[edit]

gloss (usually uncountable, plural glosses)

  1. A surface shine or luster.
    Synonyms: brilliance, gleam, luster, sheen, shine
  2. (figuratively) A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance.
    Synonyms: façade, front, veneer.
    • 1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W. Griffin, […], →OCLC:
      To me more dear, congenial to my heart, / One native charm than all the gloss of art.
    • 2013 September 7, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      Hodgson may now have to bring in James Milner on the left and, on that basis, a certain amount of gloss was taken off a night on which Welbeck scored twice but barely celebrated either before leaving the pitch angrily complaining to the Slovakian referee.
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

gloss (third-person singular simple present glosses, present participle glossing, simple past and past participle glossed)

  1. (transitive) To give a gloss or sheen to.
    Synonyms: polish, shine
  2. (transitive) To make (something) attractive by deception
    • 1722, Ambrose Philips, The Briton:
      You have the art to gloss the foulest cause.
  3. (intransitive) To become shiny.
  4. (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”).
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Glosas Emilianenses, 11th c.

From Middle English glosse, glose, from Late Latin glōssa (“obsolete or foreign word requiring explanation”), from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα (glôssa, “language”). Doublet of glossa.

Noun[edit]

gloss (plural glosses)

  1. (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.
    Synonyms: explanation, note, marginalia
    • 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras:
      All this, without a gloss or comment, / He would unriddle in a moment.
    • 2021, Mary Wellesley, The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts, page 9:
      He was a prolific annotator - writing around fifty thousand glosses in as many as twenty manuscripts.
  2. (countable) A glossary; a collection of such notes.
    Synonyms: glossary, lexicon
  3. (countable, obsolete) An expression requiring such explanatory treatment.
  4. (countable) An extensive commentary on some text.
    Synonyms: commentary, discourse, discussion
  5. (countable, law, US) An interpretation by a court of a specific point within a statute or case law.
    • 1979, American Bar Foundation., Annotated code of professional responsibility, page ix:
      This volume is thus not a narrowly defined treatment of the Code of Professional Responsibility but rather represents a "common law" gloss on it.
    • 2007, Bruce R. Hopkins., The law of tax-exempt organizations., page 76:
      Judicial Gloss on Test [section title]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
glossary — see glossary
extensive commentary on some text

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English glossen, glosen, from Old French gloser and Medieval Latin glossāre.

Verb[edit]

gloss (third-person singular simple present glosses, present participle glossing, simple past and past participle glossed)

  1. (transitive) To add a gloss to (a text).
    Synonyms: annotate, mark up
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Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

gloss m (uncountable)

  1. lip gloss (cosmetic product)
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