Christmas is over and bargain hunters start buying Christmas ornaments in January. I have been selling the tin icicles to smart shoppers looking to add shimmer to their trees. The tin icicles are a form of tinsel for decorating, but what is tinsel?
The Oxford English Dictionary includes:
1. adj. passing into n. used attrib. Of satin, etc.: Made to sparkle or glitter by the interweaving of gold or silver thread, by brocading with such thread, or by overlaying with a thin coating of gold or silver.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 281/2 Tynsyn satten, satyn brochÈ.
1531 in H. Littlehales Medieval Rec. London City Church (1905) 41 Small schredes of tensyn satten.
1552 in H. A. Dillon Calais & Pale (1892) 97 One Vestimente of reed Tensen satten without albe.
1603 Ceremonies Coronat. Jas. I (1685) 11 The Dean ..arrayeth the King ..with the Tynsin Hose.
2. A kind of cloth or tissue; tinselled cloth; a rich material of silk or wool interwoven with gold or silver thread (cf. baudekin n.); sometimes apparently, a thin net or gauze thus made, or ornamented with thin plates of metal; later, applied to a cheap imitation in which copper thread was used to obtain the sparkling effect. Obs.
1526 in Inv. Goods Dk. Richmond in Camden Misc. (1855) 18 A Testour, panyd with clothe of golde, grene tynsell, and crymsen velwet.
1529 in J. W. Clay N. Country Wills (1908) I. 93 My bedde of grene tynsill and white satteyne embrotherid with blue velvit.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia, Tincel ..signifies with us a stuff or cloth made partly of silk, and partly of copper; so called, because it glisters or sparkles like stars or fire.
Hence 1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict., Tinsel, a glittering Stuff made of Silk and Copper.
1755 Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang., Tinsel, a kind of shining cloth.
3. Very thin plates or sheets, spangles, strips, or threads, originally of gold or silver, later of copper, brass, or some gold- or silver-coloured alloy, used chiefly for ornament; now esp. for cheap and showy ornamentation, gaudy stage costumes, anglers' flies, and the like...
1732 S. Gray in Philos. Trans. 1731 .2 (Royal Soc.) 37 228 A Piece of Sheet-Brass, commonly called Tinsel.
1782 V. Knox Ess. I. viii. 38 The character of a man of integrity and benevolence is far more desirable than that of a man of pleasure or of fashion. The one is like solid gold, the other like tinsel.
1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas II. iv. viii. 178 Those who are behind the scenes are not to be dazzled by the tinsel of the property-man.
1839 G. Bird Elements Nat. Philos. 211 These gentlemen fixed one end of a cord covered with tinsel ..to the cap of an electrometer, and tying the other to an arrow, they projected it..into the air.
1859 J. Lang Wanderings in India 66 Beside him his ..bride, dressed in garments of red silk, trimmed with yellow and gold tinsel.
4. fig. Anything showy or attractive with little or no intrinsic worth; something that gives a deceptively fine or glittering appearance.
1660 Bp. J. Taylor Ductor Dubitantium I. i. iv. Rule 10 ß3 There is more gold now than before, but it is ..so hidden in heaps of tinsel, that when men are best pleased, now adays they are most commonly cozened.
1747 S. Richardson Clarissa I. iii. 13 If Miss Clary were taken with his tinsel.
1751 Johnson Rambler No. 147. K7 That poverty of ideas which had been hitherto concealed under the tinsel of politeness.
1825 T. Jefferson Autobiogr. in Wks. (1859) I. 105 Chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy tinsel of rhetoric or declamation.
1863 G. Eliot Romola I. vi. 103 An age worse than that of iron - the age of tinsel and gossamer.
5. attrib. passing into adj. †Glittering, splendid (obs.); chiefly in disparagement: Of deceptively brilliant or valuable appearance; showy with little real worth; cheaply gaudy, tawdry.
a1704 T. Brown Women of Town in Wks. (1708) III. ii. 62 A Good of no Value, a mere tinsel Bauble.
1733 G. Berkeley Theory of Vision ß3. 6 A certain way of Writing, whether good or bad, Tinsel or Sterling, Sense or Nonsense.
1769 Junius Lett. (1770) xxi. 132 You assure me, that my logic is puerile and tinsel.
1783 H. Blair Lect. Rhetoric I. xviii. 384 Nothing can be more contemptible than that tinsel splendor of Language, which some writers ..affect.
1846 J. Keble Lyra Innocentium 292 The ears that hear its murmuring, crave No tinsel melodies of earth.
1. attrib. and Comb., as tinsel-foil, tinsel-lace, tinsel-maker; tinsel-clad, tinsel-covered, tinsel-paned, tinsel-slippered adjs.; similative, as tinsel-pink, tinsel-violet; tinsel-embroidery
1858 P.L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products, Tinsel lace maker, a maker of imitation gold or silver lace.
The tin icicles are definitely "showy or attractive," but in my humble opinion, are anything but "cheaply gaudy."
Notice that a piece of sheet brass was called tinsel.
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