Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Word of the Day

bauble \BAW-buhl\,
noun:
1. a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket; gewgaw.
2. a jester's scepter.

From his pocket, he got out a small glittering bauble, carefully wrapped in translucent brown fiber.
-- Philip K. Dick, "The World Jones Made," 1956

She had no temptation for such an action; as to the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her, so much do I esteem and value her.
-- Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, "Frankenstein," 1818

Bauble is related to the Old French word bibelot, meaning "a small object of curiosity, beauty or rarity."

Dictionary.com