Word of the Day

: August 14, 2019

garniture

noun GAHR-nih-cher

What It Means

1 : embellishment, trimming

2 : a set of decorative objects (such as vases, urns, or clocks)

garniture in Context

"Above the fireplace: a scene of a cow jumping over the moon, in an elaborate gilt frame. On the mantle below, we see a clock…, flanked by garniture sturdy enough to be a murder weapon out of Agatha Christie." — Rumaan Alam, Slate, 23 Aug. 2016

"Once upon a time, this was probably one of a pair of vases that comprised a garniture set used to decorate a Victorian mantel. Its mate has vanished into the lost and found of history, but this one with its superb craftsmanship remains a thing of beauty." — Helaine Fendelman and Joe Rosson, The New Hampshire Union Leader, 29 June 2019

Did You Know?

In Middle French, garniture meant "accessory." It is an alteration of the Old French noun garneture, which is derived from the verb garnir, which meant "to equip, trim, or decorate." In fact, an Anglo-French stem of garnir, garniss-, is the source of the English verb garnish, which in its senses of "to decorate" and "to embellish" shares a similar relationship to garniture that the verb furnish shares with furniture. Furnish comes from the Anglo-French furniss-, a stem of the verb furnir or fournir, which also gave rise to the Middle French fourniture, the source of the English furniture.