Glossy

How to spell glossy

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce glossy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does glossy mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a smooth, shiny surface that reflects light.
2. nounAn expensive magazine printed on shiny coated paper.

Glossy in a sentence

• adjective

  The new car was finished in a deep glossy black.

• noun

  He flicked through a fashion glossy in the waiting room.

• adjective

  She chose a glossy paint for the kitchen cabinets.

• noun

  The celebrity sold her wedding photos to a weekly glossy.

Where does glossy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'gloss', meaning a smooth shine or surface lustre, appeared in English in the late 1500s, and its origin is genuinely murky. It is usually traced to a Scandinavian source related to old Germanic words for glowing or shining, a family that also gives us 'glow', 'glare', and 'glimmer', all sharing the suggestive opening 'gl' that English long associated with light and brightness. The adjective 'glossy' was formed simply by adding the everyday suffix '-y', meaning 'having the quality of', so it literally means 'having a shine'. It is worth noting that this 'gloss' is unrelated to the other English 'gloss' meaning a note or explanation, which comes from the Greek 'glossa' meaning 'tongue' or 'language'; the two words merely look alike. Because the shine sense was so vivid, 'glossy' soon extended to describe smooth coated paper and, by the twentieth century, the expensive magazines printed on it.

How the word is built

• gloss (sheen, lustre)
• -y (adjective suffix: having the quality of)