trinket
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Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˈtɹɪŋkɪt/
Audio (General American): (file) - (weak vowel merger) IPA(key): /ˈtɹɪŋkət/
- Rhymes: -ɪŋkɪt
- Hyphenation: trink‧et
Etymology 1
The origin of the noun is unknown; the word is possibly related to Old French tryncle (“piece of jewellery”). The following have also been suggested:
- From Middle English trenket, trynket (“small knife, specifically, a cordwainer’s knife”).[1]
- From trick (“plaything, toy; trifle”, noun) or trick (verb).
However, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, there is insufficient evidence of any shift of meaning from these words to the current meanings of trinket.[2]
The verb is derived from the noun.[3]
Noun
trinket (plural trinkets)
- A small, showy ornament, especially a piece of jewellery.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trinket
- That little trinket around her neck must have cost a bundle.
- 1619, John Fletcher, “The Humorous Lieutenant”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1647, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 136, column 2:
- [H]e's an old man, / A good old man, they ſay too: I dare ſvveare / Full many a yeare ago, he left theſe gambols: / Here, take your trinkets.
- 1713 (indicated as 1714), [John] Gay, “Book I”, in The Fan. A Poem. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 8:
- Hence is the Fair vvith Ornaments ſupply'd, / Hence ſprung the glitt'ring Implements of Pride; / Each Trinket that adorns the modern Dame, / Firſt to theſe little Artiſts ovv'd its Frame.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Country Described. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 224:
- Glumdalclitch vvrapped it [the broken finger from a statue] up in a Handkerchief; and carried it home in her Pocket to keep among other Trinkets, of vvhich the Girl vvas very fond, as Children at her Age uſually are.
- 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Tortoise, and Its Kinds”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VI, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 361:
- This [the hawksbill turtle] is the animal that ſupplies the tortoiſe-ſhell, of vvhich ſuch a variety of beautiful trinkets are made.
- 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IV, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 473:
- James [II] ordered an estimate to be made of the cost of such a procession, and found that it would amount to about half as much as he proposed to expend in covering his wife [Mary of Modena] with trinkets. He accordingly determined to be profuse where he ought to have been frugal, and niggardly where he might pardonably have been profuse. More than one hundred thousand pounds were laid out in dressing the queen, and the procession from the Tower was omitted.
- (figurative) A thing of little value; a toy, a trifle.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:trifle
- It’s only a little trinket, but it reminds her of him.
- 1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “The Great Exhibition”, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC, part I, pages 189–190:
- There is no art about the Eiffel Tower. In no way can it be said to have contributed to the real beauty of the Exhibition. Men flocked to see it and ascended it as it was a novelty and of unique dimensions. It was the toy of the Exhibition. So long as we are children we are attracted by toys, and the Tower was a good demonstration of the fact that we are all children attracted by trinkets. That may be claimed to be the purpose served by the Eiffel Tower.
- (obsolete)
- A small item of food; a small dainty.
- 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter XII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 297:
- [L]et Tim send the ale and the sack, and the nipperkin of double-distilled, with a bit of diet-loaf, or some such trinket, and score it to the new comer.
- (chiefly in the plural) A small item forming part of a set of equipment; an accessory, an accoutrement.
- 1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, “June”, in A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC, stanza 88, signatures C.iii., verso – C.iiii., recto:
- Good huſbandes that laye, to ſaue all thing vpright: / for Tumbrels and cartes, haue a ſhed redy dight. / A ſtore houſe for trinkets, kept cloſe as a iayle: / that nothing be wanting, the worthe of a nayle.
- 1599, Vincentius Beluacensis [i.e., Vincent of Beauvais], “[The Voyage of Johannes de Plano Carpini vnto the Northeast Parts of the World, in the Yeere of Our Lord, 1246. Of the First Sending of Certaine Friers Prędicants and Minorites vnto the Tartars, Taken Out of the 32. Booke of Vincentius Beluacensis His Speculum Historiale: Beginning at the Second Chapter.] Chap[ter] 17. How the Tartars Behaue Themselues in Warre.”, in Richard Hakluyt, transl., The Principal Nauigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation, […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Bishop, Ralph Newberie, and Robert Barker, →OCLC, page 62:
- [T]he poorer ſort of common ſouldiers haue euery man his leather bag or ſachell well ſowen together, wherin he packs vp all his trinkets, and ſtrongly truſſing it vp hangs it at his horſes tayle, and ſo paſſeth ouer, in manner aforeſaid.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, book II, page 128:
- Dunſtan vvas in his Vocation making ſome iron Trinkets, vvhen a Proteus-Devil appeared unto him, changing into Shapes, but fixing himſelf at laſt into the form of a Fair VVoman. […] Dunſtan perceiving it, pluckt his Tongs glovving hot out of the Fire, and vvith them kept him (or her ſhall I ſay?) there along time by the Noſe roaring and bellovving; till at laſt he brake looſe, by vvhat accident it is not told unto us.
- 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 97, lines 212–213:
- Soon you vvill hear the Saucy Stevvard ſay, / Pack up vvith all your Trinkets, and avvay: […]
- (figurative, religion, derogatory) An item used in a religious rite (also, a religious rite, belief, etc.) regarded as superfluous or trivial.
- 1549 August 26 (Gregorian calendar), Erasmus, “The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Epistle of the Apostle Saincte Paule to the Colossians. The Argument of the Epistle of Sainct Paule to the Colossians […].”, in Iohn Olde [i.e., John Old], transl., The Seconde Tome or Volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testament: […], London: […] Edwarde Whitchurche, →OCLC, folio i, recto:
- [T]he ſame teachers with Chriſts doctrine mingled Jewiſhnes and ſuperſticious Philoſophie, obſeruing and keping certain poyntes of the lawe, ſuperſticiously alſo honouring the Sunne, the Moone, and ſtarres, with ſuch other trinkettes of this world, hearing the Coloſſiãs [Colossians] in hand that thei were alſo bound to do the ſame.
- 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, book VII, page 410:
- The Duke of Somerſet vvas religious himſelf, a lover of all ſuch as vvere ſo, and a great Promoter of Reformation. Valiant, fortunate, vvitneſſe his victory in Muſleborrough field, vvhen the Scots filled many carts vvith emptineſſe, and loaded them vvith vvhat vvas lighter than vanity it ſelf, Popiſh Images, and other Trinkets, vvherein they placed the confidence of their Conqueſt.
- A small item of food; a small dainty.
Derived terms
Translations
small, showy ornament, especially a piece of jewellery
|
thing of little value — see also trifle
|
Verb
trinket (third-person singular simple present trinkets, present participle trinketing, simple past and past participle trinketed)
- (transitive, rare) Often followed by out: to adorn (someone or something) with trinkets (noun sense 1).
- 1847 June, “an ‘old school’ bard” [pseudonym], “The Good Old Times”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXIX, number 6, New York, N.Y.: John Allen, […], →OCLC, page 498:
- Oh! those were good Dame Nature’s times! / How memories sweet o’er-swarm us, / Ere wasp-like forms were girt around / With ‘bustles’ so enormous; / When modest arms were never bared / And trinketed for show, / Nor ever left their hiding-place, / Save to be hid in dough!
- 1863, George Augustus Sala, “Of My Service under the Great Turk as Bashaw; of My Adventures in Russia and Other Countries; and of My Coming Home at Last and Buying My Grandmother’s House (which is Now Mine) in Hanover Square”, in The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous: […], volume III, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 306:
- The Girls for sale are apparelled in a sumptuous manner, bathed, perfumed, and trinketed out for their [rich persons'] Private View; and their Captors seek to render 'em docile by giving 'em plenty of Sweetmeats. As if the intolerable pangs of Slavery were to be allayed by Lollipops!
- 1875 January–December, Henry James, Jr., “Experience”, in Roderick Hudson, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., published 1876, →OCLC, page 126:
- He was surprised at his own taste, but he let it take its course. It led him to the discovery that to live with ladies who expect you to present them with expensive bouquets, […] to be always arrayed and anointed, trinketed and gloved,—that to move in such society, we say, though it might be a privilege, was a privilege with a penalty attached.
- 1882, E. R. Moore, compiler, “War”, in Social Philosophy, Toledo, Oh.: The B. F. Wade Co., […], →OCLC, page 31:
- The grim idol of war is trinketed out and decked with all the colors of the rainbow. […] But no sooner is the sickle exchanged for the sword, than the soldier findeth this Bellona, whom he had wooed as a goddess in courtship, turneth out to be a demon in possession.
- 1991, Stan Hoig, “A Visit to Washington”, in Jesse Chisholm, Ambassador of the Plains, Niwot, Colo.: University Press of Colorado, →ISBN, page 85:
- On June 26 the party of sun and wind-weathered visitors from the heart of the Texas plains, dressed in their blankets and buckskins, befeathered and trinketed, arrived at the capital city's Globe Hotel and took up residence there
Derived terms
Translations
to adorn (someone or something) with trinkets
|
Etymology 2
| PIE word |
|---|
| *tréyes |
From trink (“(UK, dialectal, especially Scotland) channel, watercourse; trench”) + -et (diminutive suffix);[4] compare Scots trink.[5] Trink is possibly derived from Occitan trencque, trenque (Picardy), from Old French trenche, tranche (“trench”) (modern French tranche),[6] from trenchier (“to cut”); further etymology uncertain, possibly:
- from Latin truncāre, the present active infinitive of truncō (“to maim or mutilate by cutting off pieces; to truncate”), from truncus (“tree trunk; piece cut off”) (possibly from Proto-Indo-European *twerḱ- (“to carve; to cut off, trim”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs); or
- from Vulgar Latin *trinicāre (“to cut into three parts”), from Latin tri- (prefix meaning ‘three’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + duplicāre (“to double by dividing, split in two, tear”);
possibly also influenced by Gaulish *trincare (“to cut off (the head)”).
Noun
trinket (plural trinkets)
- (Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland) A narrow or small watercourse.
- 1901 September, [David Storrar Meldrum], “The Conquest of Charlotte. Part I.—My Legacy of Family History. Chapter VII.—The Mackerel Election (continued).”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXX, number MXXXI, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 362, column 1:
- It must have been about the same moment that a smack drew through the fine mist in the Firth [of Forth], and, sailing up the trinket, landed Provost Trail on the east pier-head.
Translations
narrow or small watercourse — see watercourse
Etymology 3
Origin uncertain, possibly:[7]
- from trinket (“small, showy ornament; thing of little value”) (see etymology 1); or
- borrowed from Welsh trànked.
Noun
trinket (plural trinkets)
- (UK, dialectal, chiefly Cheshire, Lancashire, obsolete) A small vessel for drinking from; a cup, a mug, a porringer.
- 1706, [attributed to Daniel Defoe], A True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal, the Next Day after Her Death: […], London: […] B. Bragg, […], →OCLC, page 7:
- Mrs. Bargrave asked her, vvhether ſhe vvould not drink ſome Tea. Says Mrs. Veal, I do not care if I do: But I'le VVarrant this Mad Fellovv (meaning Mrs. Bargraves Husband,) has broke all your Trinckets.
Etymology 4
| PIE word |
|---|
| *tréyes |
Probably from French trinquet (“foremast; sail attached to a foremast”), from Italian trinchetto (“small sail, especially a foresail”), possibly from Latin triquetrus (“three-cornered, triangular”) (referring to a three-cornered sail),[8] from tri- (prefix meaning ‘three’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₁d- (“sharp”).
cognates
- Catalan trinquet, triquete
- French trinquet, trinquette
- Italian trinchetto
- Portuguese traquete
- Spanish trinquete, trinquetilla
Noun
trinket (plural trinkets)
- (nautical, obsolete) A small sail, specifically, a three-cornered sail formerly carried on a ship's foremast, probably on a lateen yard.
- 1600, T[itus] Livius [i.e., Livy], “[Book XXXVI]”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Romane Historie […], London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 943:
- [H]ee ſet up the trinkets or ſmall ſailes, meaning to make vvay into the deepe, commanding them that follovved ſtill, to make head, and direct their provvs againſt the right vving neere the land.
- 1600, Iohn Baptista Ramusio [i.e., Giovanni Battista Ramusio], “The First and Second Discouery of the Gulfe of California, […] Chap[ter] 15. They Goe on Land in the Isle of Cedars, and Take Diuers Wilde Beasts, and Refresh and Solace Themselues. […].”, in Richard Hakluyt, transl., The Third and Last Volume of the Voyages, Nauigations, Traffiques, and Discoueries of the English Nation, […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Bishop, Ralfe Newberie, and Robert Barker, →OCLC, page 422:
- And the farther we went, the more the winds increaſed, ſo that they put vs to great diſtreſſe, ſayling alwayes with the ſheates of maineſaile and trinket warily in our hands, and with great diligence we looſed the ties of all the ſailes, to ſaue them the better, that the wind might not charge them too vehemently.
Etymology 5
Possibly borrowed from Scots trinket, trincket;[9] further origin unknown, possibly related to:[10]
- trinket (“item used in a religious rite (also, a religious rite, belief, etc.) regarded as superfluous or trivial”) (see etymology 1); or
- trick (noun) or trick (verb).
Verb
trinket (third-person singular simple present trinkets, present participle trinketing, simple past and past participle trinketed)
- (intransitive, chiefly Scotland, obsolete) To act in a secret, and often dishonest, way; to have secret, and often dishonest, dealings; to intrigue, to scheme.
- 1673, H. I. [pseudonym; Joseph Hill], “Sect[ion] 10. Compliance with England the Onely Meanes of the Commonwealths Continuation.”, in The Interest of These United Provinces. Being a Defence of the Zeelanders Choice. […], Middelburg, Zeeland: […] Thomas Berry, […], →OCLC:
- And if any one aſkes me, hovv? and if I be of their Cabinet Council? I ſhall onely ſmile, perceiving they doe not knovv me. I am far from that, or having ever to doe vvith Kings or States in that kind, or pragmatically trinketing vvith State affaires, it being a Rule vvhich I live by, never to aſke great men mercy.
- a. 1717 (date written), Robert South, “Sermon I. The Ill Consequences of Misapplying the Words Good and Evil.”, in Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] Thomas Tegg, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 12:
- [T]he Pharisees were men of business, and that in a very eminent manner, as appears by their behaviour both in the court of Queen [Salome] Alexandra, and afterwards in the court of Herod [the Great]; where by their tricks and trinketing between party and party, and their intriguing it with courtiers and court-ladies, they had upon the matter set the whole court together by the ears; […]
- 1821 January 8, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Kenilworth; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; and John Ballantyne, […]; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 210:
- All this I was ready to do for a woman, who trinkets and traffics with my worst foes!
- 1827, [Christian Isobel Johnstone], “The Visiter”, in Elizabeth de Bruce. […], volume I, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, →OCLC, page 370:
- [I]t had been better the auld Monkshaugh had withstood the Enemy, and dared the warst, rather than have trinketed and melled wi' witch women for rescue of life or limb.
- 1827, [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Chronicles of the Canongate; […], volume II (The Surgeon’s Daughter), Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Cadell and Co.; London: Simpkin and Marshall, →OCLC, page 45:
- But although I be bound especially to abhor all trafficking or trinketing with Papists, yet I will not stand in the way of a tender conscience.
References
- “trenket, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- “trinket, n.1”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024; “trinket, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “trinket, v.2”, in OED Online
- “trinket, n.4”, in OED Online
- “trink, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
- “trink, n.3”, in OED Online
- “trinket, n.2”, in OED Online
- “trinket, n.3”, in OED Online
- “trinket, trincket, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
- “trinket, v.1”, in OED Online
Further reading
trinket (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
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