Bijouterie

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A specific range of decorative crafts often created from precious metals and stones primarily for personal embellishment A delicate assortment of ornamental accessories, usually made from valuable substances, that enhance personal style A distinctive selection of intricate jewelry and adornments fashioned from high-quality materials for aesthetic appeal
2. Small luxury items such as decorative jewelry and trinkets crafted for adornment
3. An assortment of finely made ornamental pieces used to decorate oneself

Etymology: "Bijouterie" arrived in English directly from French, where it names the trade of making and selling jewels and trinkets, and by extension the trinkets themselves. The French word is built from "bijou," a jewel or small ornament, with the suffix "-erie," which in French forms nouns for a craft, a shop, or a collection of goods, much as "boulangerie" names a bakery and the bread it sells. English kept the sense of a collection of small, finely made ornaments, the sort worn on the body such as brooches, rings and bracelets. The French "bijou" itself has an unusual origin for something so glittering. It is generally traced to Breton, the Celtic language of Brittany, where a word for a small stick or finger ring is thought to lie behind it, so that a jewel was originally a little piece of ring-shaped metal. This connection is considered likely rather than certain, but it explains why a word for a tiny trinket ended up at the root of a whole family of French words for ornament.

Synonyms: jewelry, ornaments