exornation means ornament; decoration; embellishment (physically, or relating to prose). It carries an Arena rating of 1588, earned across 5 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, exornation ranks #2,735 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,861 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,066 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #3,583 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words.
Why “exornation” is a great word
The action or process of adorning or embellishing something, particularly in language or rhetoric. From Latin *exornātiōn-em*, from *exornāre* ("to furnish, adorn, equip"), from *ex-* ("thoroughly") + *ornāre* ("to furnish, adorn"), it was first attested in English in 1548. Unlike "ornament," a static decorative object, or "elaboration," which adds detail for clarity, exornation is the deliberate, artful act of enhancement for beauty's sake alone. It is the carefully placed cadence of a Ciceronian period, the unexpected sheen of a rare adjective on a plain noun, or the gliding of a metaphor across a factual statement like gilt on bare wood—the conscious choice to clothe thought in raiment, acknowledging that how we adorn an idea is inseparable from the idea itself.
Etymology
From Latin exornatio, from exornare. See ornate.
noun
- ornament; decoration; embellishment (physically, or relating to prose)e.g.“Hyperbolical exornations […] many much affect.” — 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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