bric-a-brac

See also: bricabrac and bric-à-brac

English

WOTD – 15 November 2022

Etymology

A bric-a-brac (sense 1) shop in Woorim, Queensland, Australia.

Bric-a-brac (sense 1) on sale in a flea market in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, U.K.

Borrowed from French bric-à-brac (“miscellaneous items of little value”), apparently from à bricq et à bracq (“at random; haphazardly”); bricq and bracq are expressive onomatopoeias of obscure origin.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪkəbɹæk/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪkəˌbɹæk/

Noun

bric-a-brac (usually uncountable, plural bric-a-bracs) (also attributively)

Small ornaments and other miscellaneous display items of little value.
Synonyms: brickety-brack, knick-knacks; see also Thesaurus:trinket
- 1840, M. A. Titmarsh [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], “Meditations at Versailles”, in The Paris Sketch Book, volume II, London: John Macrone, , →OCLC, page 267:
  The palace of Versailles has been turned into a bricabrac shop, of late years; and its time-honoured walls have been covered with many thousand yards of the worst pictures that eye ever looked on.
- 1861 January – 1862 August, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “In which Philip Shows His Mettle”, in The Adventures of Philip on His Way through the World; , volume I, London: Smith, Elder and Co., , published 1862, →OCLC, page 299:
  No doubt her pleasure would have been at that moment to give him not only that gold which she had been saving up against rent-day, but the spoons, the furniture, and all the valuables of the house, including, perhaps, J. J.'s bricabrac, cabinets, china, and so forth.
- 1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LXVII, in Daniel Deronda, volume IV, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book VIII (Fruit and Seed), page 314:
  Haven't an affair in the world, […] except a quarrel with a bric-à-brac man.
- 1882–1883, Walt Whitman, “[Collect. Notes Left Over.] Emerson’s Books, (the Shadows of Them).”, in Specimen Days & Collect, Philadelphia, Pa.: Rees Welsh & Co., , →OCLC, page 320:
  Indeed, who wants the real animal or hunter? What would that do amid astral and bric-a-brac and tapestry, and ladies and gentlemen talking in subdued tones of [Robert] Browning and [Henry Wadsworth] Longfellow and art?
(by extension) Any collection containing a variety of miscellaneous items; a hodgepodge, an olio.
Synonyms: mishmash, oddments; see also Thesaurus:hodgepodge
- 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XLIII, in Middlemarch , volume III, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book V, page 13:
  Yes: I think he is a good fellow: rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac, but likable.