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.
Meanings
(uncountable, usually) A surface shine or luster.
(figuratively, uncountable, usually) A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance.
To me more dear, congenial to my heart, / One native charm than all the gloss of art. 1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC:
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. 2013 September 7, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian:
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.
Meanings
(transitive) To give a gloss or sheen to.
(transitive) To make (something) attractive by deception
You have the art to gloss the foulest cause. 1722, Ambrose Philips, The Briton:
(intransitive) To become shiny.
(idiomatic, transitive) Used in a phrasal verb: gloss over (“to cover up a mistake or crime, to treat something with less care than it deserves”).
de beschönigen (make (something) attractive by deception) · bg лъскам (give a gloss or sheen to) · de glanzpolieren (give a gloss or sheen to) · de schönfärben (make (something) attractive by deception) · de verbrämen (make (something) attractive by deception) · ru наводи́ть лоск (make (something) attractive by deception) · gd lìomh (give a gloss or sheen to) · ota یالدزلامق (make (something) attractive by deception) · de vertuschen (make (something) attractive by deception) · de unter den Teppich kehren (make (something) attractive by deception) · de polieren (give a gloss or sheen to) · fi kiillottaa (give a gloss or sheen to) · de schönreden (make (something) attractive by deception) · de retuschieren (make (something) attractive by deception) · pt brilhar (become shiny) · de überspielen (make (something) attractive by deception) · de bemänteln (make (something) attractive by deception) · io glacar (give a gloss or sheen to) · ru наводи́ть гля́нец (give a gloss or sheen to) · ru лосни́ться (become shiny)
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.
Meanings
(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.
He was a prolific annotator - writing around fifty thousand glosses in as many as twenty manuscripts. 2021, Mary Wellesley, The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts, page 9:
All this, without a gloss or comment, / He would unriddle in a moment. 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras:
(countable) Synonym of glossary, a collection of such notes.
(countable, obsolete) An expression requiring such explanatory treatment.
(countable) An extensive commentary on some text.
(US, countable) An interpretation by a court of a specific point within a statute or case law.
This volume is thus not a narrowly defined treatment of the Code of Professional Responsibility but rather represents a "common law" gloss on it. 1979, American Bar Foundation., Annotated code of professional responsibility, page ix:
Judicial Gloss on Test [section title] 2007, Bruce R. Hopkins., The law of tax-exempt organizations., page 76:
A definition or explanation of a word sense.
Therefore, for many of the Hebrew words in this book, I have provided more than one gloss (using a slash to separate alternatives, or double slashes when a single slash would be ambiguous), in order to give you a sense of the possible meanings of nuances […]. 2019, Jonathan Kline, A Proverb a Day in Biblical Hebrew, page xi:
Dictionary entries comprise two essential parts, the headword ('lemma') and the author's explanation ('gloss'). 2011, Gabriele Stein, “The linking of lemma to gloss in Elyot's Dictionary (1538)”, in Olga Timoleeva, Tanja Saily, editor, Words in Dictionaries and History: Essays in Honour of R. W. McConchie:
no glose (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · pl glosa (extensive commentary on some text) · pl glosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Fußnote (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ru гло́сса (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · he פירוש (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · sh гло̏са (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · bo མཆན་འགྲེལ (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ka განმარტება (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · fi selitys (extensive commentary on some text) · gl glosa (extensive commentary on some text) · it chiosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Erläuterung (extensive commentary on some text) · sv randanmärkning (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · fi selitys (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Glossem (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Randbemerkung (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · bg бележка в полето (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · tr şerh (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · sh glȍsa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · gl glosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ca glossa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · fr glose (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · enm glose (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ang glēsing (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ga gluais (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · it glossa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ka შენიშვნა (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ja 注解 (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · es glosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · ja グロス (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Erläuterung (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · eo gloso (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · sv glossa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Glosse (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · pt glosa (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · de Randnotiz (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression) · uk глоса (brief explanatory note or translation of a difficult or complex expression)
pt glosar (to add a gloss to (a text)) · de annotieren (to add a gloss to (a text)) · de kommentieren (to add a gloss to (a text)) · de beschriften (to add a gloss to (a text)) · de mit Anmerkungen versehen (to add a gloss to (a text)) · de mit einer Randnotiz versehen (to add a gloss to (a text)) · es glosar (to add a gloss to (a text)) · fi selittää (to add a gloss to (a text)) · io glacar (to add a gloss to (a text)) · ang glēsan (to add a gloss to (a text)) · enm glosen (to add a gloss to (a text))