gloss

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 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

1. A surface shine or luster.
2. (figurative) A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance.
   .
   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. 7 September 2013, Daniel Taylor, “Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban”, in The Guardian

verb

1. (transitive) To give a gloss or sheen to.
2. (transitive) To make (something) attractive by deception
   You have the art to gloss the foulest cause. 1722, Ambrose Philips, The Briton
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”).

Etymology 2

, 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

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.
   All this, without a gloss or comment, / He would unriddle in a moment. 1684, Samuel Butler, Hudibras
   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
2. (countable) A glossary; a collection of such notes.
3. (countable, obsolete) An expression requiring such explanatory treatment.
4. (countable) An extensive commentary on some text.
5. (countable, law, US) An interpretation by a court of 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

Etymology 3

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

verb

1. (transitive) To add a gloss to (a text).