meretricious

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

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɛɹɪˈtɹɪʃəs/, /ˌmɛɹəˈtɹɪʃəs/

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• Rhymes: -ɪʃəs

meretricious (comparative more meretricious, superlative most meretricious)

1. Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring.

   Synonym: specious

   • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. , London: J Johnson, ; and G[eorge,] G and J Robinson, , →OCLC:

     I discovered even, by his conversation, when intoxicated that his favourites were wantons of the lowest class, who could by their vulgar, indecent mirth, which he called nature, rouse his sluggish spirits. Meretricious ornaments and manners were necessary to attract his attention.

   • 1846, Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy, London: Bradbury & Evans, , →OCLC:

     It might be reasonably objected elsewhere, that some of the tombs are meretricious and too fanciful; but the general brightness seems to justify it here; and Mount Vesuvius, separated from them by a lovely slope of ground, exalts and saddens the scene.

   • 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., chapter III, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC; republished as Roderick Hudson (EBook #176), U.S.A.: Project Gutenberg, 18 September 2016:

     Gloriani’s statues were florid and meretricious; they looked like magnified goldsmith’s work.

   • 1885, William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham‎:

     There is nothing showy or meretricious about the man.

   • 1915, W Somerset Maugham, chapter XLII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H Doran Company, →OCLC:

     What is art beside love? I respect and applaud your indifference to fine poetry when you can contemplate the meretricious charms of this young person.

   • 1918, W B 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.

• (tastelessly showy): brassy, cheap, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, tacky, tatty, tawdry, trashy

• merit