bauble
nounUK [ˈbɔːbəɫ] · US /ˈbɔbəl/
Etymology From Middle English bable, babel, babull, babulle, from Old French babel, baubel (“trinket, child's toy”), most likely a reduplication of bel, ultimately from Latin bellus (“pretty”).
1
A cheap showy ornament or piece of jewellery; a gewgaw.
- […] as to the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her, so much do I esteem and value her.1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter 8, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
- Have none before or after him staked all their treasure of life, as a savage does his land and possessions against a draught of the fair-skins’ fire-water, or a couple of bauble eyes?1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
1 more example
- Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade.1977, Jimmy Webb, “Highwayman”:
2
Broadly, Figuratively Anything trivial and worthless.
- His hind quarters were likewise short, and not racinglike, and taken as a specimen of the horse, he was a mere bauble when looked at by the side of an English race-horse, much less a hunter.1841, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 186:
3
A small shiny spherical decoration, commonly put on Christmas trees.
4
A club or sceptre carried by a jester.
- Synonyms
- also: Thesaurus:trinket
- Derived terms
- baublery