bric-à-brac

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“
The warehouse of my bric-à-brac dealer was a veritable Capharnaum.

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Definitions (1)

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  1. Objects having a certain interest or value from their rarity, antiquity, or the like, as old furniture, plate, china, and curiosities; articles of virtu; ornaments which may be pretty or curious, but have no intrinsic claim to rank as serious works of art. The term is often used with a sense of depreciation. Two things only jarred on his eye in his hurried glance round the room; there was too much bric-à-brac, and too many flowers. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, xxxi.

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Etymologies (1)

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  1. French, of uncertain origin; according to Littré, based on the phrase de bric et de broc, by hook or by crook: Old French de, from; bric, a cage or trap for birds (whence the phrase prendre au bric (or brit), to take at advantage); ct, and; broc, a jug, flagon, tankard, pot. According to others, a varied reduplication of *brac, from Middle Dutch brackgoed, damaged goods, waste: see brack. For the reduplication, cf. the equivalent English term knick-knacks.
 

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