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Paraphernalia
Definitions
- 1 Miscellaneous items, especially the set of equipment required for a particular activity. plural, plural-only
"drug paraphernalia"
- 2 equipment consisting of miscellaneous articles needed for a particular operation or sport etc. wordnet
- 3 Objects that a married woman owns, such as clothing and jewellery, apart from her dowry. archaic, plural, plural-only
"So she told her what her husband had said and sat with her awhile; but, presently, up came porters, who brought all her clothes and paraphernalia and what not else belonged to her of goods and vessels from her husband’s house and deposited them in that of her mother."
Etymology
Borrowed from Medieval Latin paraphernālia (“goods which a wife brings over and above her dowry”), use as noun (short for paraphernālia bona (“paraphernal goods”)) of neuter plural of paraphernālis, from Late Latin parapherna + Latin -ālis (suffix forming adjectives), from Ancient Greek παράφερνα (parápherna), a compound of παρά (pará, “beside”) + φερνή (phernḗ, “dowry”). In the propertied classes, a dowry was placed under the control of the husband, while the paraphernalia which she brought with her remained the wife’s property.
See also for "paraphernalia"
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