---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for April 19, 1999 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- furbelow [n. FUR-buh-low] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Usually this word appears in the plural form, as part of a phrase: "Those extra trimmings are nothing but frills and furbelows!" A furbelow is a frilly decoration or trim on a woman's dress, like the lacy edge of a petticoat, or a pleated border. The word is seldom used today, but when it is it almost always carries an implication of unnecessary trimmings or decorations, or something that is excessively ostentatious and showy. There's no connection with fur here. The word is from the Provencal farbella (fringe), from Italian faldella (little pleat). That's the diminutive of falda (flap, loose end), which is from an ancient Germanic root that also gave us fold, as well as the -fold suffix (twofold, threefold, etc). A somewhat more distant connection from the same ancient root led to the -uple series, including triple, octuple, decuple, multiple, and the other numeric -uples. Today's sponsor: BulletMail http://www.bulletmail.com/signup.cgi?kw Get Free Email on your favorite topics PLUS GET 10 FREE GIFTS! Sign up now for free at http://www.bulletmail.com/signup.cgi?kw ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Cool Word of the Day list membership: 82,459 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe, visit http://www.tlk-lists.com/join/ To unsubscribe, visit http://www.tlk-lists.com/change/ To become a sponsor, visit http://www.tlk-lists.com/sponsor/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 1999, The Learning Kingdom, Inc. http://www.LearningKingdom.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------