Other forms: glosses, glossed, glossing
Gloss is paint that dries to a hard shiny surface. Gloss paint, high gloss, gloss or eggshell.
It is the traditional finish for woodwork because it is hard and washable, though eggshell and satin have largely replaced it for looking less severe. Gloss also means shine on anything: lip gloss, a gloss on the hair. There is a separate word gloss meaning a note explaining a word, and a glossary is a collection of them — and to gloss over something is to skate past it.
1nounglossPaint or a finish that dries hard and shiny.
“He painted the window frames with white gloss so they would shine.”
2verbpassTo pass over something without proper attention.
“The report glossed over the company's losses and focused on its few successes.”
gloss is a shine, or an explanatory note.
The shine word is probably Scandinavian, related to Icelandic glossi, a flame. The explanatory note is a different word entirely, from Greek glossa, a tongue.
Proto-Indo-European
*ǵʰel- — to flourish; be green or yellow
Proto-Germanic
*glus- — to glow, shine
Dutch
gloos — a glow, flare
English, today
gloss
Built from
Probably from a gmq - 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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA