Link Centre Dictionary

tinsel

tin·sel

UK/ˈtɪns(ə)l/ US/ˈtɪnsəl/ uncommon archaic obsolete rare
noun (2) verb (3)

noun

1.

a showy decoration that is basically valueless

  • “all the tinsel of self-promotion”
2.

verb

1.

impart a cheap brightness to

  • “his tinseled image of Hollywood”
2.

adorn with tinsel

  • “snow flakes tinseled the trees”
3.

interweave with tinsel

  • “tinseled velvet”

Origin

The noun is derived from Middle English tinsel (“cloth containing gold or silver thread”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman tincel, tincelle, tencele, and then: * from Old French estincelle, estencele (“a spark”) (modern French étincelle), from Vulgar Latin *stincilla, a metathesis of Latin scintilla (“a glimmer; a spark”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“to shimmer, shine”); and * from Old French estincelé, the past participle of estinceler, estenceler (“to produce sparks”) (modern French étinceler (“to sparkle, twinkle; (archaic) to produce sparks”)), from Vulgar Latin *stincillāre, a metathesis of Latin scintillāre, the present active infinitive of scintillō (“to scintillate, sparkle”), from scintilla (“a glimmer; a spark”) (see above) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs). The English word is a doublet of scintilla, scintillate, and stencil. The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun; while the verb is derived from the noun.

Phrases

  • tinsel lily
  • tinsel print
  • tinsel wire
  • trim up

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.