Log in or Sign up
  1. paraphernalia love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Personal belongings.
  2. n. The articles used in a particular activity; equipment: a photographer's paraphernalia. See Synonyms at equipment.
  3. n. A married woman's personal property exclusive of her dowry, according to common law.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. In law, those personal articles which the common law recognized the right of a married woman to own and keep, notwithstanding the marital right of her husband to her personal property in general. Under this name all the personal apparel, bedding, and ornaments which she possessed and had used during marriage, and which were suitable to her rank and condition of life, were deemed hers at common law.
  2. n. Personal ornaments or accessories of attire; trappings; equipments, especially such as are used on parade, or for ostentatious display, as the symbolic garments, ornaments, weapons, etc., used by freemasons or the like.
  3. n. Miscellaneous possessions, as the numerous small conveniences of a traveler, small decorative objects, and the like.
  4. n. Ornaments, or ornamental accessories, collectively.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Miscellaneous items, especially the set of equipment required for a particular activity; stuff.
  2. n. archaic Things a woman owns, apart from her dowry.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Law) Something reserved to a wife, over and above her dower, being chiefly apparel and ornaments suited to her degree.
  2. n. Personal belongings; ornaments; finery; sundry objects carried about for personal convenience.
  3. n. The appendages, apparatus, or equipment used in a particular activity.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles needed for a particular operation or sport etc.

Etymologies

  1. The origin of the word is Ancient Greek παρά (para) + φερνή (phernē) (“things additional to a dowry”). In the propertied classes, a dowry was placed under the control of the husband, while the 'paraphernalia' which she brought with her remained the wife’s property. (Wiktionary)
  2. Medieval Latin paraphernālia, neuter pl. of paraphernālis, pertaining to the parapherna, a married woman's property exclusive of her dowry, from Greek : para-, beyond; see para-1 + phernē, dowry; see bher-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Many of these restaurants will integrate paraphernalia from the history of the theater into their interior design.”

    Cool Design In Culture Campus by AEQUO Studio

  • “Just for fun the company has a chart tracking sales and, sure enough, Huckabee and McCain paraphernalia sales shot up before they took off in the polls and winning contests.”

    The Thong Primary - Swampland - TIME.com

  • “Seriously: someone tell the kids enjoying the "suite life" that wearing Saints paraphernalia is not a crime.”

    Archive 2008-09-01

  • “The person who walked off with a hunting stand and related paraphernalia from a wooded area in Gambrills might have had a second thought if he knew who owned them: Sheriff Ronald S. Bateman.”

    Hunters Robbing Hunters

  • “I should have realized when I tabulated the survey results for a community event where peope received free books and paraphernalia from the organization, yet still had no idea who they were and what they did.”

    When passion flames out. «

  • “Walpole's more aristocratically-detached contemplation of Gothic paraphernalia is precisely what gave rise to the unprecedented amount of Gothic romances in the”

    Haunted Britain in the 1970s

  • “All the usual paraphernalia is thereheroic fight against odds, escape at the last moment, shots of galloping horses, love interest, comic relief.”

    Boys' Weeklies

  • “She also said that the committee’s online store, which sells inaugural paraphernalia, is doing a “robust” business, with 6,000 people having bought items ranging in price from $2 to $400.”

    Bill Clinton Asks for Money for Obama Inauguration - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

  • “Lucy, about that shawl — that’s not part of your Stevie Nicks paraphernalia, is it?”

    Cooper Renner, | clusterflock

  • “Standing out amid the paraphernalia is a green-and-gold Oakland A's cap, meant to remind the program's staff of the film Moneyball, in which Brad Pitt plays the renegade baseball executive Billy Beane.”

    The Biz: CBS' Morning Glory?

Show 10 more examples...

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘paraphernalia’.

Comments

No comments yet...

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

Tweets

Looking for tweets for paraphernalia.

‘paraphernalia’ has been looked up 3791 times, loved by 12 people, added to 78 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 20.