Wallpapered

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The method of decorating room surfaces with patterned paper transforms the ambiance and visual interest of a space
2. Applied patterned or plain paper to a surface for decoration
3. Decorated walls or surfaces by attaching sheets of paper with designs

Etymology: Printed paper imitating costly woven tapestries was hung on European walls from about the 15th century, and the plain compound name describes exactly that: paper put on a wall as a cheaper stand-in for hangings. The two halves come from very different sources. "Wall" passes through Old English "weall" from Latin "vallum", a rampart or palisade. "Paper" goes back through Latin "papyrus" to Greek "papyros", the Nile reed that Egyptians pressed into sheets. A decorative room covering therefore joins a fortification word to the name of a river plant. The verb and the participle "wallpapered", which now works as an adjective, were most likely formed by turning the noun into a verb, a shift in word class that came after the noun was already in use.

Synonyms: decorated, adorned, covered, furnished, embellished

Antonyms: bare, naked, unadorned, uncovered, plain