Frippery vs Tinsel - What's the difference?
frippery | tinsel | Related terms |
Ostentation, as in fancy clothing.
Useless things; trifles.
* 1892' April, (Frederick Law Olmsted), ''Report by F.L.O.'', quoted in '''2003 , , New York, N.Y.: (Crown Publishing Group), ISBN 978-0-609-60844-9, page 170:
* '>citation
(obsolete) Cast-off clothes.
* '>citation
(obsolete) The trade or traffic in old clothes.
(obsolete) The place where old clothes are sold.
* 1610 , , act 4 scene 1
Hence: secondhand finery; cheap and tawdry decoration; affected elegance.
A shining material used for ornamental purposes; especially, a very thin, gauzelike cloth with much gold or silver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like.
* :
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=Foreword Very thin strips of a glittering, metallic material used as a decoration, and traditionally, draped at Christmas time over streamers, paper chains and the branches of Christmas trees.
Anything shining and gaudy; something superficially shining and showy, or having a false luster, and more gay than valuable.
* :
Glittering, later especially superficially so; gaudy, showy.
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.1:
To adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy.
* :
(figuratively) To give a false sparkle to (something).
Frippery is a related term of tinsel.
As nouns the difference between frippery and tinsel
is that frippery is ostentation, as in fancy clothing while tinsel is a shining material used for ornamental purposes; especially, a very thin, gauzelike cloth with much gold or silver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like.As an adjective tinsel is
glittering, later especially superficially so; gaudy, showy.As a verb tinsel is
to adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy.frippery
English
Noun
- [Olmsted reiterated his insistence that in Chicago] simplicity and reserve will be practiced and petty effects and frippery avoided.
- O, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a frippery .
- Fond of gauze and French frippery . — .
- The gauzy frippery of a French translation. — .
References
* 1897 Universal Dictionary of the English Language , Robert Hunter and Charles Morris, eds., v 2 p 2213. [for entries 2, 3, 4, & 5] Frippery (Page: 597) (Webster 1913)tinsel
English
Noun
(-)- Who can discern the tinsel from the gold?
citation, passage=He stood transfixed before the unaccustomed view of London at night time, a vast panorama which reminded him […] of some wood engravings far off and magical, in a printshop in his childhood. They dated from the previous century and were coarsely printed on tinted paper, with tinsel outlining the design.}}
- O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! His the mere tinsel , hers the rich reward.
Adjective
(en adjective)- Her garments all were wrought of beaten gold, / And all her steed with tinsell trappings shone [...].
Verb
- She, tinseled o'er in robes of varying hues.
