different between gloss vs glitter

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?l?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?l?s/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /?l?s/
• Rhymes: -?s, -??s

Etymology 1

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 gl?sen (“to smoulder, glow”), German glosen (“to smoulder”); ultimately from Proto-Germanic *glus- (“to glow, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *??el- (“to flourish; be green or yellow”). More at glow.

Noun

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

     To me more dear, congenial to my heart, / One native charm than all the gloss of art.

Derived terms

• glossy
• glost

Related terms

• glow

Translations

Verb

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

Etymology 2

From Middle English glosse, glose, from Late Latin gl?ssa (“obsolete or foreign word requiring explanation”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (glôssa, “language”).

Noun

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.

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 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

• beglossed

Related terms

• glossary

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English glossen, glosen, from Old French gloser and Medieval Latin gloss?re.

Verb

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

Derived terms

• gloss over

Translations

Further reading

• gloss (material appearance) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gloss (annotation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• gloss in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• gloss in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• gloss at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• slogs

Portuguese

Noun

gloss m (uncountable)

1. lip gloss (cosmetic product)

English

Etymology

From Middle English gliteren, from Old Norse glitra, from Proto-Germanic *glitr?n? (“to glitter”), from Proto-Indo-European *??ley-.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??l?t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??l?t?/, [??l???]
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)

Noun

glitter (countable and uncountable, plural glitters)

1. A bright, sparkling light; shininess or brilliance.
   • 1913, Mary Averill, Japanese flower arrangement Chapter 20

     This to them seems most like mother earth in color, and therefore best, as it is, to enhance the beauty of flowers instead of detracting from their exquisite shades. What a contrast to the glitter and show of our silver vases, which represent generally little else but their cost.

   • 1841, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge Chapter 57

     As yet there had been no symptom of the news having any better foundation than in the fears of those who brought it, but The Boot had not been deserted five minutes, when there appeared, coming across the fields, a body of men who, it was easy to see, by the glitter of their arms and ornaments in the sun, and by their orderly and regular mode of advancing

2. A shiny, decorative adornment, sometimes sprinkled on glue to make simple artwork.
3. (figuratively) Glitz.

Descendants

• ? Portuguese: glitter
• ? Spanish: glitter

Translations

Verb

glitter (third-person singular simple present glitters, present participle glittering, simple past and past participle glittered)

1. To sparkle with light; to shine with a brilliant and broken light or showy luster; to gleam.

   a glittering sword

   the glittering ornaments on a Christmas tree

   • The field yet glitters with the pomp of war.

2. To be showy, specious, or striking, and hence attractive.

   the glittering scenes of a court

Derived terms

• all that glitters is not gold

Translations

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English glitter.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /??li.te?/

Noun

glitter m (uncountable)

1. glitter (shiny, decorative dust)

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English glitter.

Noun

glitter m (plural glitteres)

1. glitter

Swedish

Etymology

Probably from Old Norse glitra.

Noun

glitter n (uncountable)

1. glitter; a shiny, decorative adornment

Declension

Related terms

• glittra
• glittrig