Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Word of the Day -- Garniture

Garniture: embellishment, trimming; or a set of decorative objects (as vases, urns, or clocks).

In Middle French, the language from which today's word was borrowed, "garniture" meant "equipment." "Garniture" is an alteration of the Old French noun "garnesture," which is derived from the verb "garnir," which meant "to warn, equip, or garnish." In fact, an Anglo-French stem of "garner," "garniss-," is the source of the English verb "garnish," which in its senses of "decorate" and "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."
 




1 comment:

Natha said...

Nowadays, in french, the second and probably most often used mean of "garniture" is for foods that accompany a dish (mostly vegetables or rice or pasta or fries that accompany a meat or fish dish).
And the third, still more used than the orignal first meaning that you mentionned, is for "piece to make tight, strengthen", like brake lining.

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