tinsel

Meaning

Verb

1. To adorn (something) with tinsel.
2. To adorn (something) with tinsel.
3. To give (something) a false or superficial attractiveness.

Noun

1. (obsolete) A shining fabric used for ornamental purposes.
2. (obsolete) A shining fabric used for ornamental purposes.
3. A thin, shiny foil for ornamental purposes which is of a material made of metal or resembling metal; especially, narrow glittering strips of such a material, often strung on to thread, and traditionally at Christmastime draped on Christmas trees, hung from balustrades or ceilings, or wrapped around objects as a decoration.
4. Anything shining and gaudy; especially something superficially shiny and showy, or having a false lustre, and more pretty than valuable.

Adj

1. (obsolete) Of fabric: ornamented by being woven with gold or silver thread, or overlaid with thin metal plates; brocaded.
2. (obsolete) Glittering.
3. Apparently beautiful and costly but having little value; superficially attractive; gaudy, showy, tawdry.

Noun

1. (obsolete) Damage, detriment; loss.
2. Deprivation; forfeiture.

Synonyms

spangle

trumpery

foil

braid

tawdry

embellish

flitter

galloon

gaud

gaudy

gimcrack

gimcrackery

glorify

hair

kitsch

lace

leaf

nicknack

ostentatious

pad

pedal

prettify

silver

silver-plate

sugarcoat

sweeten

tinfoil

trinket

window-dress

wire

clinquant

knick-knackery

romanticise

silverplate

copper-tinsel

metallic thread

euphemise

metallic paper

metallic foil

bauble

blocking foil

brummagem

color

colour

electroplate

Hyphenated as

tin‧sel

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈtɪns(ə)l/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: tinsel

Cognate with French: étincelle

Cognate with French: étinceler

In summary

The noun is derived from Middle English tinsel (“cloth containing gold or silver thread”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman tincel, tincelle, tencele, and then:
* from Old French estincelle, estencele (“a spark”) (modern French étincelle), from Vulgar Latin *stincilla, a metathesis of Latin scintilla (“a glimmer; a spark”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“to shimmer, shine”); and
* from Old French estincelé, the past participle of estinceler, estenceler (“to produce sparks”) (modern French étinceler (“to sparkle, twinkle; (archaic) to produce sparks”)), from Vulgar Latin *stincillāre, a metathesis of Latin scintillāre, the present active infinitive of scintillō (“to scintillate, sparkle”), from scintilla (“a glimmer; a spark”) (see above) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).
The English word is a doublet of scintilla, scintillate, and stencil.
The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun; while the verb is derived from the noun.