• parure •
Pronunciation: pê-rur • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Matched set of jewelry.
Notes: Parure is a word lost to the English-speaking world long before the expiration of its usefulness. It is a lexical orphan, but we could create potential adjectives paruric or parural quite grammatically.
In Play: This word originally referred to matched sets of jewelry: "Maude Lynn Dresser arrived at the cotillion adrip in a parure of matching necklace, bracelets, and earrings beset with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires." But it also has metaphoric possibilities: "In the last several years NATO has assembled an impressive parure of new members along Russia's western flank."
Word History: This word was booty from one of English's once frequent raids on Old French, this time parure "rind, peel" which, by the 13th century had come to mean "adornment". The French word was built on parer "to adorn" + -ure, a common noun suffix. Parer is a descendant of Latin parare "to make ready, prepare; make equal". The latter sense, no doubt, contributed to the sense of "matched set". The Latin word seemingly was passed down from PIE perê-/porê- "to grant, trade, sell; of equal value", remnants of which may be seen in Sanskrit aprata "gratuitously (without recompense)", Greek porne "prostitute" (originally "bought"), Attic Greek perein "to sell", Latin pretium "value, worth", Lithuanian pirkti "to buy", and Latvian pirkt "to buy". (Now a word of gratitude to George Kovac, who is very active in the Agora and a major contributor of outstanding Good Words like today's.)
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