Contextualizebeta

bric-a-brac

noun
/ˈbɹɪkəbɹæk/UK/ˈbɹɪkəˌbɹæk/US

Etymology

Borrowed from French bric-à-brac (“miscellaneous items of little value”), apparently from à bricq et à bracq (“at random; haphazardly”); bricq and bracq are expressive onomatopoeias of obscure origin.

  1. borrowed from bric-à-brac — “miscellaneous items of little value”

Definitions

  1. Small ornaments and other miscellaneous display items of little value.

    • The palace of Versailles has been turned into a bricabrac shop, of late years; and its time-honoured walls have been covered with many thousand yards of the worst pictures that eye ever looked on.
    • Haven't an affair in the world, […] except a quarrel with a bric-à-brac man.

  2. Any collection containing a variety of miscellaneous items

    Any collection containing a variety of miscellaneous items; a hodgepodge, an olio.

    • Yes: I think he is a good fellow: rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac, but likable.

The neighborhood

Derived

bric-a-bracker, bric-a-brackery, bric-a-bracquerie, brickety-brack

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bric-a-brac. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA