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/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪʃəs
Adjective
meretricious (comparative more meretricious, superlative most meretricious)
- 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.
- (law) Involving unlawful sexual connection or lack of consent by at least one party (said of a romantic relationship).
- (obsolete) Of, or relating to prostitutes or prostitution.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
Tastelessly gaudy
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