Etymology

meretricious

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Today it means: Tastelessly gaudy; superficially attractive but having in reality no value or substance; falsely alluring. Full definition →

Latin meretrīcius
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The story

  1. Latin · derived frommeretrīcius
  2. English todaymeretricious

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.