A.Word.A.Day --kickshaw

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kickshaw

PRONUNCIATION:

(KIK-shaw)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A fancy dish; delicacy.
2. A trinket.

ETYMOLOGY:

From phonetic respelling of French quelque chose (something) as kickshaws which was treated as a plural and turned into the singular kickshaw. Earliest documented use: 1598.

USAGE:

"I assume it's a gloriously handsome affair ... slices of homemade seed cake and other toothsome kickshaws."
Jonathan Glancey; Mrs Beckett; Building Design (UK); Oct 24, 2008.

"A more sophisticated eye might cringe at the odd little kickshaws displayed about the room, but I appreciated the whimsy."
Amanda Stevens; The Prophet; Harlequin; 2012.

See more usage examples of kickshaw in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

We should be slower to think that the man at his worst is the real man, and certain that the better we are ourselves the less likely is he to be at his worst in our company. Every time he talks away his own character before us he is signifying contempt for ours. -James M. Barrie, novelist, short-story writer, and playwright (1860-1937)

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