Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 29, 2008

gimcrack JIM-krak, noun:

1. A showy but useless or worthless object; a gewgaw.
2. Tastelessly showy; cheap; gaudy.

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

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

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Nurse Myra is due back any moment now, I just know it. I’m sending white light to her internet connection.

🙂