parure

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English parure, from Old French pareure, parure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pəˈɹʊə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)

Noun

parure (plural parures)

1. A set of jewellery to be worn together.
   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “Who Stole the Black Diamonds ?”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     “… among the objects stolen was the famous parure of Black Diamonds, for which a bid of half a million sterling had just been made and accepted. […]”

   • 1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC:

     But I am heart-set on you, and to win you there is not a precious stone I would leave unturned. Conceive a parure all of white stones—diamonds, white sapphires, white topazes, tourmalines. Another, of rubies and amethysts, set in gold filigree. Rings that once were poison-combs on Florentine fingers. Red roses for your hair—every petal a hollowed ruby. Amulets and ape-buckles, zones and fillets. Aye! know that you would be weeping for wonder before you had seen a tithe of these gauds.

   • 1979, Kyril Bonfiglioli, After You with the Pistol, Penguin, published 2001, page 202:

     Why, then, was she not in Bond Street, as advertised, scribbling her signature on Travellers' Cheques and scooping up emerald parures and things?

Related terms

• demie parure

Anagrams

• rear up, uprear

French

Etymology

First attested in Old French, from parer +‎ -ure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa.ʁyʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

parure f (plural parures)

1. (jewelry) parure (set of jewellery)
   • 1857, Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary […]‎^[1], Paris: Michel Lévy Frères:

     À trois pas d'Emma, un cavalier en habit bleu causait Italie avec une jeune femme pâle, portant une parure de perles.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. finery
3. adornment

Derived terms

• grande parure

Further reading

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

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from French parure.

Noun

parure f (invariable)

1. a set of matching lingerie or jewellery