paraphernalia
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\n \n Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 21, 2024 is:\n \n
\n \n\n paraphernalia • \\pair-uh-fuh-NAIL-yuh\\ • noun
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Paraphernalia can refer to objects or items that are used to do a particular activity, as well as objects or items that are typically associated with a particular activity, subject, etc. The word can also refer generally to personal belongings.
\n\n// Jordan\u2019s childhood bedroom was filled with hockey paraphernalia.
\n\n// After weeks of packing up all our paraphernalia, we hit the road and headed to our new home.
\n\n\n \n \n\n Examples:
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"Attendees schmoozed as they shopped the silent auction items which included sports paraphernalia, sports, entertainment, and vacation packages, and more." \u2014 Barbara Hendel, The Toledo (Ohio) Blade, 28 Mar. 2024
\n \n \n\n Did you know?
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Today, paraphernalia is typically encountered in its "equipment" and "accessories" senses in such common contexts as "fishing paraphernalia," "music paraphernalia," and "drug paraphernalia." But the word hasn't always been used in these ways. Originally, paraphernalia referred to property that a married woman owned herself, as distinct from her husband's property or the dowry she brought to the marriage. Paraphernalia came to English, via Medieval Latin, from the Greek term parapherna, meaning "bride's property beyond her dowry" (from para-, meaning "beyond," and phern\u0113, meaning "dowry"). Although paraphernalia was plural in Medieval Latin, it can take either a singular or plural verb in English; in other words, both "coffee paraphernalia lines the caf\xe9's shelves" and "coffee paraphernalia line the caf\xe9's shelves" are acceptable.
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