Brodere

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To decorate fabric by stitching patterns with thread ; to embellish a story with fictitious or exaggerated details
2. Creating ornamental designs on material using needle and thread ; adding imaginative elements to a narrative to make it more elaborate
3. Producing embroidered motifs on textiles by hand or machine ; enhancing an account or recounting with extra, often invented, details

Etymology: Middle English "brodere" is the older form of what is now "broider," and it came into English from Anglo-French and Old French "broder," meaning to embroider. The French word is thought to come from a Frankish or Germanic source, possibly linked to an Old English word "brord," meaning a point or spike, which would suggest the idea of pricking a needle through cloth. That link is uncertain, so it should be treated as a likely connection rather than settled fact. The figurative sense, using the word for padding out a tale, developed from the sewing sense: an embroidered cloth carries decoration added on top of a plain base, and a story "embroidered" in the same way carries extra material added to the facts. The prefix "em-" was attached later in English, giving "embroider," while the shorter form survived as "broider."