“The
floury folds of his loose white tunic were stained sparsely with cherry red
blood, giving the impression that he had been struck several times in the heart
with a dagger – an appropriate bedizenment for a
romantic hero.” – Stained Glass Soul, Chapter 19, Mackenzie L, fanfiction.net
Bedizenment…?
What can it mean? I’d never seen a word like that before. Something about it
just seemed kind of magical, like a unicorn of the English language. At first
look, it looks like it could be some sort of dizziness or special type of
confusion, but it in fact refers to a specific manner of dressing, specifically
about dressing in a fancy way. A lot of the examples that can be found through
a quick Google search cite the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, where it specifies
modest dress. “Bedizen not yourselves with the bedizenment of the Time of
Ignorance.” Something of interest: the Holy Qur’an never describes how to dress, just that one should dress
modestly.
What
do you think of this word? Is it something you’ll use? Comment and share!
(179
words)
bedizen
[bih-dahy-zuh n,
-diz-uh n]
verb (used with object)
1.
to dress or adorn in a showy, gaudy, or tasteless
manner.
Related forms - bedizenment, noun
Word Origin and History for bedizen
v.1660s,
from be- + dizen “to dress” (1610s), especially from the late 18c., “to dress
finely, adorn”, originally “to dress (a distaff) for spinning” (1520s), and
evidently the verbal form of the first element in distaff
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