The Good Oil Word of the Day

The word for today is…

paraphernalia (noun):

1a: articles of equipment designed for a particular use or activity : apparatus
b: items or features typically associated with a particular activity, subject, etc.
2: personal belongings
3 dated : the separate real or personal property of a married woman that she can dispose of by will and sometimes according to common law during her life

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : In current use, paraphernalia is typically encountered in its "equipment" sense in such contexts as "arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia." But the word hasn't always been used in that way. Originally, paraphernalia was property that a married woman owned herself—as opposed to her husband's property or the dowry she brought to the marriage. Paraphernalia came to English, via Medieval Latin, from Greek parapherna, meaning "bride's property beyond her dowry" (from para-, meaning "beyond," and phernē, meaning "dowry"). Although paraphernalia was plural in Medieval Latin, it can take either a singular or plural verb in English.

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