the.com/finery
Clothes that exist solely to announce you spent money on them.
means Elaborate, decorative clothing or jewelry worn to display wealth or mark a special occasion.
from Straightforward spin-off of 'fine' — from Old French 'fin,' meaning refined or of high quality, itself rooted in Latin 'finis' (end, limit), by way of the idea of something brought to its finished, perfected state. English bolted on '-ery' (the same suffix that gives us 'jewelry' or 'millinery') to turn the quality of being fine into a noun for the stuff that embodies it — the clothes themselves.
- origin
- from fine, meaning refined, not fined
- peak usage
- weddings, courts, and funerals of rich people
- irony
- often rented, borrowed, or on credit
- synonym tell
- nobody wears finery to do chores