Tuesday Word: Frippery

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

frip·per·y [ˈfrɪpərɪ]:
origin: [1560's] French; frepe/freperie= old garment.

noun (plural)
Needlessly fanciful -- in fashion, architecture, or verbiage; ostentatious.

Comments

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

That's Art Nouveau ironwork and I am sad to see it called "needless," because I need it. :(

Liking frippery does not make it less fitting of the definition...

[theidolhands.livejournal.com]

The point is that the fanciful swirls have no functional use (hence the vocabulary definition of "needless") and are specifically in place to draw one's eye to it and make it very different from things around it. You may be familiar with a similar term defined here as well: folly (http://1word1day.livejournal.com/541247.html?thread=1473343).

Many people deliberately collect "frippery" (such as the beaded bags), department stores would have a "frippery" department in bygone eras (what we'd more likely call "accessories" now), and there is a popular company that uses the term as their name (so popular that I had to struggle to find images not from their site).

With vocabulary, especially words spanning periods of time, terms can be like this and are not meant to be taken personally. I also like the ironwork gate and enjoy frippery in general.

[myspin.livejournal.com]

Whether one enjoys frippery or not, does not matter. Art is art. That you enjoy frippery, is fine and good. It would be very sad, indeed, if you had no need for art.