meretricious

English

WOTD – 2 August 2007

Etymology

From Latin meretrīcius, from meretrīx (harlot, prostitute), from mereō (earn, deserve, merit) (English merit) + -trīx ((female agent)) (English -trix).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˌmɛɹɪˈtɹɪʃəs/, /ˌmɛɹəˈtɹɪʃəs/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪʃəs

Adjective

meretricious (comparative more meretricious, superlative most meretricious)

  1. Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring.
    Synonym: specious
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
    • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 164:
      When I lifted my eyes from the page, there was none of the meretricious argument London always offers that the sole real purpose in life is to hustle for a buck.
    • 2010, Naomi Oreskes; Erik M. Conway, chapter 1, in Merchants of Doubt:
      Murrow's later death from lung cancer was both tragic and ironic, for during World War II Murrow had been an articulate opponent of meretricious balance in reporting.
  2. (law) Involving unlawful sexual connection or lack of consent by at least one party (said of a romantic relationship).
  3. (obsolete) Of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution.

Synonyms

Translations

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