• (RP) IPA: /ɡlɒs/
• (America) IPA: /ɡlɔs/
• (cot-caught) IPA: /ɡlɑs/

Probably from a gmq - language, compare Icelandic glossi, glossa; or perhaps from dialectal Dutch gloos, related to Western Frisian gloeze, Middle Low German glȫsen, German glosen; ultimately from Proto-Germanic *glus-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel-.

gloss (uncountable)

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[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC ↗:

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

• glow

• German: Glanz, Schimmer, Glitzern
• Portuguese: lustre, lustro, brilho
• Russian: блеск
• Spanish: brillo, lustre

• German: Fassade, Schönfärberei, Politur, Retusche, Blendfassade, Schaufassade
• Russian: блеск

gloss (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”).

• German: polieren, glanzpolieren
• Russian: наводить глянец

• German: schönfärben, verbrämen, beschönigen, vertuschen, bemänteln, überspielen, retuschieren, unter den Teppich kehren, schönreden
• Russian: наводить лоск

• Portuguese: brilhar
• Russian: лосни́ться

From Middle English glosse, glose, from Late Latin glōssa, from Ancient Greek γλῶσσα.

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, legal, US) An interpretation by a court of a specific point within a statute or case law.

• glossary
• glossator

• French: glose
• German: Glosse, Glossem; Erläuterung , Randbemerkung , Randnotiz, Fußnote
• Italian: glossa, chiosa
• Portuguese: glosa
• Russian: глосса
• Spanish: glosa

• German: Erläuterung

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

gloss (glosses, present participle glossing; simple past and past participle glossed)

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

   Synonyms: annotate, mark up

• German: kommentieren, beschriften, annotieren, mit einer Randnotiz versehen, mit Anmerkungen versehen
• Portuguese: glosar