Am 28.07.2020 um 14:53 schrieb SuStel:

https://wikidiff.com/shiny/glossy#:~:text=As%20adjectives%20the%20difference%20between,smooth%2C%20silklike%2C%20reflective%20surface.

Thanks, that looks useful, but still doesn't help, because there is
overlap in meaning.

When I read "reflective surface" I think of a blade, which is {boch}.
And a glossy surface might still be reflecting light, does it not?
That's what the wikipeida article explains as well....

Does maybe "glossy" refer to the surface quality, while "shiny" says
what it does? So could I say that a glossy surface is shiny?

Being shiny is just one quality of a glossy surface. Something glossy is also smooth and silk-like. Not everything that is shiny is smooth and silk-like. A full-color, high-quality magazine is shiny, smooth, and silk-like (hence their informal name, glossies). A suit of mail may be shiny, but it is not smooth or silk-like, and so it isn't glossy. The side of a blade will be smooth and shiny, but not silk-like, so it's not glossy

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name