Word of the Day

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

gimcrack

\JIM-krak\ , noun;

A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.

adjective:

Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy.

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Quotes:

Yet the set is more than a collection of pretty gimcracks.

-- Frank Rich, Hot Seat

In those cities most self-conscious about their claim to be part of English history, like Oxford or Bath, the shops where you could have bought a dozen nails, home-made cakes or had a suit run up, have shut down and been replaced with places selling teddy bears, T-shirts and gimcrack souvenirs.

-- Jeremy Paxman, The English: A Portrait of a People

And as for coincidences in books -- there's something cheap and sentimental about the device; it can't help always seeming aesthetically gimcrack.

-- Peter Brooks, "Obsessed with the Hermit of Croisset", New York Times, March 10, 1985

Origin:

The origin of gimcrack is uncertain. It is perhaps an alteration of Middle English gibecrake, "a slight or flimsy ornament."