Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A set of matched jewelry or other ornaments.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A set of corresponding articles of decorative character; also, the total amount of decoration produced in any one case by similar means, as a set of embroideries or lace trimmings for a dress; hence, a set of ornaments intended to be worn together, or matching with one another: as, a parure of jewels.
- n. Ornament; adornment.
Wiktionary
- n. A set of jewellery to be worn together.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An ornament or decoration for the person; esp., a decoration consisting of a set of ornaments to be used together.
Etymologies
- From Old (and modern) French parure, from parer ‘pare’. (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old French, adornment, from parer, to adorn; see pare. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I have not the least respect for your feathers, Miss Fanshawe; and especially the peacock’s eyes you call a parure: very pretty things, if you had bought them with money which was your own, and which you could well spare, but not at all pretty under present circumstances.””
“They say that in the time of Kassapa Buddha she gave cloth for robes to twenty thousand priests, also thread and needles and dyeing material, all her own property; and the parure was the result of this liberality.”
“As Sotheby's tells it, the stones in the parure helped save the Russian Empire back in 1711, when the country was on the verge of defeat by the Ottomans at the battle of Pruth River.”
“Denmark's Crown Princess Mary made a wiser choice in a sea-foam green pleated gown, and not surprisingly, chose to wear the diamond and ruby parure which once belonged to Queen Ingrid of Denmark, a former Swedish princess.”
The Huffington Post: Princess Victoria's Wedding The Triumph Of Style In Sweden (PHOTOS, POLL)
“A demi-parure of gold mounted tiger's teeth was among her favorite ornaments, since the tigers had been shot by her beloved, (but mostly absent), father.”
Michael Henry Adams: Michelle Obama's High Style for Hard Times
“She had a parure of the choicest giant pearls, two diamond parures.”
“She had a parure of emeralds and one of fabulous rubies.”
“She wore a parure of diamonds and emeralds—a sight to remember!”
“This semi-mystery of the parure was not solved till two or three days afterwards, when she came to make a voluntary confession.”
“Her ornaments were sundry necklaces of various beads, large red and white, and small blue and pink porcelains; a leaf, probably by way of amulet, was bound to a string round the upper arm; and wrists and ankles were laden with heavy rings of brass and copper, the parure of the great in Fán-land.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘parure’.
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phrontistery - p
from phrontistery.info
pabouche, pabulous, pabulum, pacable, pace, pachydermia, pachyglossal, pachymeter, pachynsis, paciferous, pacificate, pactolian and 1766 more...
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250 Spelling Words
A selected sampling of words for intermediate and advanced spellers.
orecchiette, rhabdomancy, guayabera, orthoepy, opisthenar, maguey, proem, ciabatta, cioppino, banns, concinnity, asthenia and 237 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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p is for...
my favorite voiceless bilabial plosive.
panacea, persnickety, panache, provenance, preternatural, penumbra, perfunctory, perspicacity, potentate, pinguid, plainsong, pleonastic and 228 more...
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19 c.
some of the interesting words i've had to look up while reading 19th century lit
maugre, connate, alembic, azote, vaticination, valetudinarian, dight, scutcheon, lammergeyer, chamois, asseverate, prebendary and 199 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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participation
parade, pare, parlay, parry, parure, apparatus, apparel, comprador, disparate, emperor, imperative, imperator and 86 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for parure.
frogapplause a French word commonly used by vintage costume jewelry collectors to describe a set of three or more matching pieces/adornments; two matched pieces are sometimes referred to as a demi-parure. For jewelry, a typical parure consists of a necklace, earrings, brooch and a bracelet (or two bracelets). In Victorian times, two bracelets was the norm. Today, many people wear wristwatches, so a modern parure includes a single bracelet. Sep 11, 2009