frippery

the word 'frippery' has a journey from the concrete to the abstract, beginning with the trade in old, cast-off clothing. it entered english in the mid-16th century from middle french 'freperie', which referred to old clothes or rags. the core french term 'frepe' for a rag is thought to be of onomatopoeic origin, imitating the sound of tearing or rustling cloth. over time, the meaning expanded from the trade in second-hand finery to describe the showy but cheap ornaments sold in such trade, and finally to its modern sense of any ostentatious or trivial ornamentation, capturing the notion of something gaudy and ultimately worthless.

Structure: fripper (dealer in old clothes) + y (noun suffix denoting condition or practice) fripper (from middle french 'freperie', meaning old clothes or rags, itself from old french 'frepe', 'felpe', meaning rag, of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of the sound of tearing cloth) + y (a noun-forming suffix of middle english origin, from old english '-ig' and old french '-ie', indicating a state, condition, or practice).