friperie

French

Etymology

From Old French freperie, feuperie (“old clothes, rags”), from frepe, feupe (“clothes, rags”), from Late Latin faluppa (“straw, fiber, chip”), which is possibly a loan from Celtic. By surface analysis, fripe +‎ -erie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁi.pʁi/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

friperie f (plural friperies)

1. (collective) used clothes
   • 1845, Alfred de Musset, Mimi Pinson‎^[1]:

     Elle s’était enveloppée dans son rideau avec tant d’art et de précaution, qu’il ressemblait vraiment à un vieux châle et qu’on ne voyait presque pas la bordure. En un mot, elle trouvait moyen de plaire encore dans cette friperie, et de prouver, une fois de plus sur terre, qu’une jolie femme est toujours jolie.

     She had wrapped herself in her curtain with such skill and care that it really did look like an old shawl, and one could hardly see the border. In a word, she still found a way to look attractive even in that old rag, proving, not for the first time, that a pretty woman is always pretty.

2. (metonymically) second-hand shop

Descendants

• → English: frippery

References

• Köppe (2007): Global Heritage: Tradition and Innovation : Africa and South Asia in Perspective

Further reading

• “friperie”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.