the.com/veneer
A beautiful lie, 0.6 millimeters thick, glued to something cheaper.
means A thin, attractive surface layer — literally a sliver of fine wood (or figuratively, a polished show of manners or quality) covering something plainer underneath.
from From French fournir, 'to furnish or provide,' which traveled into German as furnieren and then English as 'veneer' — originally a cabinetmaker's term for facing cheap wood with a thin layer of something finer. The literal woodworking sense came first; the 'fake sophistication' meaning is a later, very logical extension — if you can furnish a table with a pretty face, why not a person.
- modern thickness
- Often sliced under 1 millimeter thick
- ancient use
- Egyptians veneered furniture with ebony 3000 BC
- metaphor shift
- By 1700s English, already meant fake surface charm
- dental version
- Porcelain shells glued onto teeth, same logic