parergy means something unimportant, incidental, or superfluous; a trifle. It carries an Arena rating of 1652, earned across 51 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, parergy ranks #251 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,849 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #1,999 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,986 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
parergy is pronounced /ˈpæɹə(ɹ)d͡ʒi/.
Why “parergy” is a great word
PARERGY — [Noun] Something unimportant, incidental, or superfluous; a trifle. From the Latin parergon, from the Ancient Greek πάρεργον (párergon), from παρά (pará, "beside") + ἔργον (érgon, "work"). Unlike "parergon," which can dignify a supplementary artistic work, or "bagatelle," which often charms as a light musical piece, parergy carries the stale air of the utterly superfluous. It is the stray pencil mark in a manuscript's margin, the dust on the mantelpiece arranged by a draft, the curl of wood shaving swept from a master's bench—the small, perfect efforts we devote to what does not matter, perhaps because the work that does is too vast to face.
Etymology
Latin parergon, Ancient Greek πάρεργον (párergon); παρά (pará, “beside”) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”).
noun
- Something unimportant, incidental, or superfluous; a triflee.g.“Wherefore the Scriptures being serious, and commonly omitting such parergies, it will be unreasonable from hence to condemn all laughter” — 1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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