different between pageantry vs tinsel

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pæd??nt?i/

Etymology

pageant +? -ry

Noun

pageantry (countable and uncountable, plural pageantries)

1. A pageant; a colourful show or display, as in a pageant.
   • 1609: William Shakespeare, Pericles (V, ii)

     That you aptly will suppose / What pageantry, what feats, what shows, / What minstrelsy, and pretty din, / The regent made in Mytilene / To greet the king.

   • 1849: Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

     The world seemed decked for some holiday or prouder pageantry, with silken streamers flying, ...

   • 2019, Barney Ronay, Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam (in The Guardian, 8 May 2019)[1]

     Anfield had been the usual portable pageantry of flags and banners and songs before kick-off. With the sky still blue above the away end the Barcelona fans stood and watched and took pictures and joined in the pre-match round of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle French estincelle (“spark”) (compare French étincelle), from Latin scintilla; compare scintillate, stencil.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?t?n.s?l/
• Rhymes: -?ns?l

Noun

tinsel (usually uncountable, plural tinsels)

1. A shining material used for ornamental purposes; especially, a very thin, gauzelike cloth with much gold or silver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like.
   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe

     Who can discern the tinsel from the gold?
2. Very thin strips of a glittering, metallic material used as a decoration, and traditionally draped at Christmas time over streamers, paper chains and the branches of Christmas trees.
3. Anything shining and gaudy; something superficially shining and showy, or having a false luster, and more pretty than valuable.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Truth

     O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward.

Translations

Adjective

tinsel (not comparable)

1. Glittering, later especially superficially so; gaudy, showy.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.1:

     Her garments all were wrought of beaten gold, / And all her steed with tinsell trappings shone […]

Verb

tinsel (third-person singular simple present tinsels, present participle (UK) tinselling or (US) tinseling, simple past and past participle (UK) tinselled or (US) tinseled)

1. (transitive) To adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy.

   • She, tinseled o'er in robes of varying hues

2. (figuratively, transitive) To give a false sparkle to (something).

Derived terms

• tinseled, tinselled
• tinselly
• Tinseltown

See also

• trimmings
• trim up

References

• tinsel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• ELINTs, SILENT, Teslin, enlist, inlets, leints, listen, silent