Talk:tinsel

Earliest Usenet uses

Earliest Usenet uses via Google Groups:

• tinsel: net.jokes - 9 Apr 1982 by azure

  We were so poor we couldn't afford tinsel for the Christmas tree.

• Tinsel Town: net.movies - 15 Oct 1983 by Lauren Weinstein

  Title: Western Electric and Tinsel Town

  tinseltown: net.tv.da - 27 Nov 1983 by Larry Dwyer

  This demonstrates that TDA was just another attempt by the mogols in tinseltown to try to make a fast buck (claiming it was as accurate as possible to get everyone to watch).

• Tinseltown's: net.motss - 22 Aug 1985 by Ron Rizzo

  I'm told he was in effect forced out of Hollywood because of that, even though he was one of Tinseltown's better & more original directors.

• tinsels (sic): comp.arch - 21 Mar 1989 by Gedankenleere

  The claimed cultural links, I believe, are mere myths that were invented by the humanities people and most of us have been duped into swallowing it whole without critcal scrutiny because they have wrapped it up in beguiling tinsels of a social agenda that a lot of us believe in.

• tinsel's: alt.callahans - 14 Dec 1990 by Alun Jones

  The tree is bare, and the tinsel's torn, And it's Johnny Bloody Mathis "When a Child Is Born."

• tinsels (correct plural): rec.pets.dogs - 21 Mar 1994 by Cindy Tittle Moore

  Paper-based tinsel is not as bad, but the plastic or metallic based tinsels should not be used.

• Tinsel Town's: rec.games.video.nintendo - 20 Oct 1994 by Dennis Crowley

  Featuring six stages and two forms of attack (bombs and a dash attack), Bonkers, "joining his star-caliber friends, including Fall Apart Rabbit and Lucky Pickle, [will] try to stop Tinsel Town's crime wave by recovering three of Hollywood's most prized possessions which were stolen from the Toon Museum."

— Hippietrail 12:25, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Some of those are for Tinseltown, of course, and at least one is specific to a video game (fails WT:FICTION). Equinox ◑ 19:40, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Meaning of word

Not sure the definitions make sense. The first one says it is "gauzelike" and laden with much gold -- MUCH GOLD? As in actual gold? I thought tinsel was fake gold or fake-looking, unvaluable, like the way its used in the sentences provided by people who lived centuries ago. — This comment was unsigned.

Yes, real gold. Sense 1 is an older kind of tinsel. Sense 2 is the fake Christmas stuff we have today. Equinox ◑ 03:16, 16 May 2021 (UTC)

Further notes

These notes were added at some point (dumped under the translation table): they need tidying and grammar corrections before they can be properly integrated, so I have moved them here:

"[Sense] no. 1 refers to tinsel as a 'gauzelike cloth...' metalic woven into it. This material is called "Angel Hair,' & is rarely sold, because of slivers of glass that produce the metalic effect. Tinsel is also called 'icicles,' that are hung as such, on individual tree limbs. Neither does the term refer to 'garlands,' that are long & are hung loosely, surrounding the tree." Equinox ◑ 19:38, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

A true adjective?

The Spenser citation could be seen as a noun. Equinox ◑ 03:15, 16 May 2021 (UTC)