What does frippery mean?
Frippery refers to showy, ostentatious, or gaudy finery — clothing, ornaments, or decoration prized for flashy appearance rather than genuine worth. The word is almost always used dismissively: what is called frippery is judged pretentious, trivial, or wasteful, whether it adorns a person, a building, or an argument. In its historical sense, frippery also denoted old or cast-off clothes, and the word traces its origin to the French "friperie," a shop selling secondhand garments — an irony given that the modern term now targets expensive display rather than worn-out cloth. Today it appears most often in literary or critical writing, frequently as "mere frippery" to condemn excessive ornament, or in the plural "fripperies" for collections of trifling embellishments. It remains useful precisely because it names a familiar failing: mistaking glitter for substance.
Showy or ostentatious dress and ornamentation, especially when regarded as gaudy, pretentious, or lacking genuine value.
"The courtiers' frippery contrasted sharply with the austerity of the monks' robes."
Frequently used in the plural as "fripperies" when referring to multiple items of showy adornment.
(Historical) Old or cast-off clothes; formerly also a dealer in such garments.
"In the sixteenth century, a frippery was where Londoners went to buy secondhand apparel."
This sense survives mainly in historical and etymological discussion.
The plural is common and idiomatic, typically used for multiple items of showy ornament rather than a count of abstract qualities.
"Her dressing table was cluttered with the fripperies of a bygone fashion."
"Frippery" once meant literally secondhand clothes sold in Parisian friperies before it came to stand for all that is gaudy and vain.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of frippery
Frippery comes from the French "friperie," meaning old clothes or a shop selling them, derived from "friper," to wrinkle or rumple. The word passed into English in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, first referring to old or secondhand garments before shifting to mean showy, pretentious finery. The ultimate root may lie in a Germanic source adopted into Romance languages, though the details are uncertain.
How frippery is actually used
Frippery carries an almost invariably negative connotation of vanity, superficiality, or wasteful excess, and today it is used mostly about things (clothing, decoration, style) rather than as an abstract virtue term. The register is somewhat literary or elevated; the plural form "fripperies" is very common when referring to multiple items of showy adornment.