Why this word is great
PASSEMENTERIE — [Noun] An ornate decorative trimming for clothing or furnishings, comprising complex braids, gimps, cords, beads, and tassels. From French passementerie, from French passement ("decorative lace, trimming") + -erie (a suffix denoting a craft or collection). Unlike generic "trim" (a blandly functional category) or "embroidery" (which is stitched into the fabric's skin), passementerie is a separate, lavish appliqué—the tactile architecture of opulence. It is the gold bullion fringe weighting a velvet theatre curtain, the intricate frogging on a Hussar’s jacket holding history in its knots, and the minute jet beads trembling at the cuff of a mourning gown—a half-forgotten grammar of a more ceremonious time, where dignity was something you could, quite literally, attach.