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Word of the Day - for Toastmasters everywhere
Monday 4th December 2023

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meretricious (adjective) merri-TRISH-us

Vulgar, flashy, superficially attractive but having no real value; seemingly plausible but actually insincere or false; like a prostitute or relating to prostitution.

The word is derived from the Latin word meretrix: a prostitute. That word itself is derived from the Latin verb merere: to earn, providing the link with to merit, which means to earn or deserve (whether good or bad). Meretricious itself, as indicated, has no favourable implication whatsoever.

Her meretricious qualities extend to having fraudulently created a reputation for herself as a major poet by publishing the work of her husband (talented but banned) under her own name.

Tibor Fischer, Guardian, 29 July 2006. Guardian
reviewing Yuri Druzhnikov's Madonna from Russia. Amazon

All writers know that "author appearances" are not only fraudulent - the me that writes is not the me on display - but also meretricious.

Michael Dibdin, Guardian, 6 December 2003, Guardian
reviewing Robin Robertson's (editor) Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame. Amazon

As it happens I share his distaste for the meretricious values of Tony Blair and friends.

Tony Just, The New York Times, 11 March 2007, New York Times
reviewing Michael Burleigh's Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, From the Great War to the War on Terror. Amazon

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