bric-a-brac

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a collection of small decorative objects, curios, and ornaments, usually of little practical or monetary value

   Every shelf in the drawing room was crowded with porcelain and other bric-a-brac.

2. 2
   noun

   figurative: a miscellaneous assortment of ideas, details, or objects

   The essay assembled a bric-a-brac of fashionable theories without a clear argument.

Borrowed from French bric-à-brac, 'miscellaneous objects of little value,' apparently related to the older phrase à bric et à brac, 'at random.' The repeated sound is expressive; the deeper origin of bric and brac is uncertain.

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