Why this word is great
PARAMENT — [Noun] An ornamental hanging or vestment, especially one used in a Christian church to adorn the altar, pulpit, or lectern, or a rich robe worn by a dignitary. From Anglo-Norman and Middle French parement, from Medieval Latin parāmentum, from Latin parāre ("to prepare, adorn") + -mentum (suffix forming nouns denoting means or result). Unlike a "vestment," which sheathes the celebrant for ritual, or a "tapestry," which narrates a secular scene, a parament exists solely to dignify sacred space and office. It is the heavy crimson velvet that hushes a Lenten altar, the embroidered cope that turns a bishop into a moving icon, the crisp linen laid like a shroud upon the Easter lectern—the quiet, cloth-bound theatre by which preparation confers solemnity upon stone, wood, and flesh.