What is "tinsel"

Tinsel \Tin"sel\, a. Showy to excess; gaudy; specious; superficial. ``Tinsel trappings.''
--Milton.

Tinsel \Tin"sel\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tinseledor Tinselled; p. pr. & vb. n. Tinseling or Tinselling.] To adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy.

She, tinseled o'er in robes of varying hues.
--Pope.

Tinsel \Tin"sel\, n. [F. ['e]tincelle a spark, OF. estincelle, L. scintilla. Cf. Scintillate, Stencil.]

1. A shining material used for ornamental purposes; especially, a very thin, gauzelike cloth with much gold or silver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like.

   Who can discern the tinsel from the gold?
   --Dryden.

2. Something shining and gaudy; something superficially shining and showy, or having a false luster, and more gay than valuable.

   O happy peasant! O unhappy bard! His the mere tinsel, hers the rich reward.
   --Cowper.

mid-15c., "a kind of cloth made with interwoven gold or silver thread," from Middle French estincelle "spark, spangle" (see stencil (n.)). "In 14-15th c. Fr., the s of es- had long been mute" [OED]. Meaning "very thin sheets or strips of shiny metal" is recorded from 1590s. Figurative sense of "anything showy with little real worth" is from 1650s, suggested from at least 1590s. First recorded use of Tinseltown for "Hollywood" is from 1972.

1. glittering, later especially superficially so; gaudy, showy. n. A shine material used for ornamental purposes; especially, a very thin, gauzelike cloth with much gold or silver woven into it; also, very thin metal overlaid with a thin coating of gold or silver, brass foil, or the like. v

2. 1 (context transitive English) To adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy. 2 (context figuratively transitive English) To give a false sparkle to (something).

1. n. a showy decoration that is basically valueless; "all the tinsel of self-promotion"

2. a thread with glittering metal foil attached

3. v. impart a cheap brightness to; "his tinseled image of Hollywood"

4. adorn with tinsel; "snow flakes tinseled the trees"

5. interweave with tinsel; "tinseled velvet"

6. [also: tinselling, tinselled]

Tinsel, is a type of decorative material that mimics the effect of ice, consisting of thin strips of sparkling material attached to a thread. When in long narrow strips not attached to thread, it is called "lametta", and emulates icicles. It was originally a metallic garland for Christmas decoration. The modern production of tinsel typically involves plastic, and is used particularly to decorate Christmas trees. It may be hung from ceilings or wrapped around statues, lampposts, and so on. Modern tinsel was invented in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1610, and was originally made of shredded silver.

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, the word is from the Old French word estincele, meaning “sparkle”.

Tinsel is a metallic material used for ornamentation, notably including Christmas decorations. It may also refer to:

• Tinsel (codename), a type of radio jamming equipment used during World War II
• Catapaecilma elegans or Common Tinsel, a species of butterfly
• Tinsel Dome, a small hill in Antarctica
• Tinsel (TV series), a Nigerian soap opera
• Tinsel (novel), a 1979 novel by William Goldman
• Tinsel Korey (born 1980), Canadian actress and musician
• Tinsel, a member of the original Exiles (Malibu Comics)

Tinsel is a Nigerian soap opera that began airing in August 2008. On May 23, 2013, the show's 1000th episode aired. It has been called "the most successful television drama on Nigerian television in recent times". Tinsel is produced by M-Net/Africa Magic.

The codename Tinsel referred to a type of equipment carried by RAF bombers and used for jamming Luftwaffe night-fighter controllers' speech radio-frequencies during the Second World War.

The equipment consisted of an audio microphone mounted inside one of the bomber's engine nacelles, the output of which fed into the aircraft's standard T1154 radio transmitter. The wireless operator could listen in to the frequencies used by the defending forces and then, when he heard a German transmission, tune his transmitter into the Luftwaffe frequency and transmit the amplified engine-noise on the same frequency, thus jamming the enemy transmission.

Although not very effective as a jammer - the noise produced merely acted as background noise to the transmitted speech - Tinsel did have the effect of making the night-fighter crews' job of distinguishing the instructions received from the ground more difficult.

Tinsel is a 1979 novel written by William Goldman. It was the third of a four book deal he had with Delacorte Press after Marathon Man and Magic. He called it "my Hollywood novel". He began writing it on April Fools' Day 1978 and finished it five months' later.

Goldman says he was motivated to write it to explore the treatment of women in Hollywood:

There are a couple of basic truths about this town. One is that nobody knows anything about what will work. It's all a search for past magic. Those who can no longer produce it are useless. The other truth is that everyone in the movie community is searching for heat. John Travolta was the hottest thing ever-ever; only Dustin Hoffman after The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy was comparable. Then Travolta made a movie with Lily Tomlin ( Moment to Moment) and where were his fans? Farrah Fawcett is a year from game shows. This is why we're all so nervous. There's no carry over of affection. It's why nobody can cut their price. You're worth a million dollars or you're unemployed. That's what happened to Elizabeth Taylor and what I wanted to tell in Tinsel. What happens to the women of Hollywood?