clinquant
English
Etymology
From French clinquant, from clinquer (“to clink”), from Dutch klinken (“to sound, ring, clink”), from Middle Dutch clinken, clingen, from Old Dutch *clingan, from Proto-West Germanic *klingan, from Proto-Germanic *klinganą (“to sound, ring”). Cognate with German klingen (“to sound”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈklɪŋkənt/
Adjective
clinquant (comparative more clinquant, superlative most clinquant)
- Glittery; gleaming; sparkling; dressed in, or overlaid with, tinsel finery.
- a. 1603, Shakespeare, William; Fletcher, John, Henry VIII, act 1, scene 1, lines 18–20:
- Today the French, / All clinquant, all in gold, like heathen gods, / Shone down the English;
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Noun
clinquant (uncountable)
- Dutch metal.
- Tinsel; glitter.
- 1806 [a. 1681], Hutchinson, Lucy, Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson, volume 2, 3rd edition, Longman, Hurst, Bees, and Orme, published 1810, page 177:
- Harrison came that day in a scarlett coate and cloake, both laden with gold and silver lace, and the coate so cover'd with clinquant, that scarcely could one discerne the ground,
- 1762, Vertue, George; Walpole, Horace, Some Anecdotes of Painting in England, volume 2, published 1849, page 442:
- Lely supplied the want of taste with clinquant; his nymphs trail fringes and embroidery through meadows and purling streams.
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