| 释义 |
‖ bric-à-brac|ˈbrɪkəˌbræk|
Written also without the accent, and as one word.
[Fr.; said by Littré to be formed after the phr. de bric et de broc ‘by hook or by crook’.]
Old curiosities of artistic character, knick-knacks, antiquarian odds-and-ends, such as old furniture, plate, china, fans, statuettes, and the like.
1862Thackeray Philip I. 299 All the valuables of the house, including, perhaps, J. J.'s bricabrac, cabinets, china, and so forth. 1873M. E. Braddon Strange World I. iv. 67 That bric-a-brac upon which the Bellingham race had squandered a small fortune. 1885Athenæum 7 Mar. 308 Some syndicate, growing tired of bric-à-brac.
b. attrib., as in bric-à-brac man, bric-à-brac shop.
1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1872) 243 The palace of Versailles has been turned into a bricabrac shop. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. lxvii. (D.) Haven't an affair in the world..except a quarrel with a bric-a-brac man.
c. quasi-adj. (humorous.)
1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. xliii. 13, I think he is a good fellow; rather miscellaneous and bric-à-brac,—but likable.
Hence bric-a-bracker, bric-a-brackery. (colloq. or humorous.)
1880Mark Twain Tramp Abr. I. 180, I am content to be a bric-a-bracker. Ibid. I. 179 It is the failing of the true..devotee in any department of bric-a-brackery. |