Garniture

paperwhites

This isn’t really a garniture, I just like the word. Or at least, the specific trade meaning of “garniture” is a group of decorative objects made to be displayed together, and this isn’t that. I like the word because it sounds like a cross between “furniture” and “garnish” (it’s actually from the same French root as “garnish”). So it’s like furniture that’s only for garnish. And a garniture must be made of an odd number of pieces: three, or five, or seven is fine, but if you’ve got a pair of something they aren’t a garniture. They’re just a pair. Four of something is—I dunno, a gaggle? Six is just an unseemly profusion. Eight is an orgy. But three, or five, or seven, can be a garniture. The whole thing tickles me somehow.

In other news, my paperwhites are blooming, isn’t that nice?


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