entry
embellish
/ɪmˈbɛlɪʃ/to decorate or add details, sometimes fictitious
From French, from en- em- (in) + O.French, from Latin bel (beautiful).
from Latin bellus "handsome, pretty, fine" (see belle). Meaning "dress up (a narration) with fictitious matter" is
from Old French embelliss-, stem of embellir "make beautiful, ornament,"
from Middle English embelishen
Word Ancestry
from Latin bellus "handsome, pretty, fine" (see belle). Meaning "dress up (a narration) with fictitious matter" is
from Old French embelliss-, stem of embellir "make beautiful, ornament,"
from Middle English embelishen
At its simplest, embellish is a little act of transformation: Old French em- means something like “into,” and bel means “beautiful.” By the mid-14th century, English speakers were using it for making something beautiful; within about a century, it could also mean dressing up a story with invented details. That second sense is a wonderfully revealing twist: a plain tale gets ornamented just like a bare room gets decorated. The bel hiding inside the word comes from Latin bellus, “pretty” or “handsome,” also behind belle. So when someone embellishes a story, they are, etymologically speaking, giving it a beauty treatment—with the occasional extra flourish that never actually happened.
The Story
At its simplest, embellish is a little act of transformation: Old French em- means something like “into,” and bel means “beautiful.” By the mid-14th century, English speakers were using it for making something beautiful; within about a century, it could also mean dressing up a story with invented details. That second sense is a wonderfully revealing twist: a plain tale gets ornamented just like a bare room gets decorated. The bel hiding inside the word comes from Latin bellus, “pretty” or “handsome,” also behind belle. So when someone embellishes a story, they are, etymologically speaking, giving it a beauty treatment—with the occasional extra flourish that never actually happened.
Modern Usage
A reported informal use meaning to defeat or socially destroy someone.
Kin & Kindred
From 'em-'·in, into; bring into a state
Derived Terms
English words from this root
From 'bel'·beautiful; from Latin bellus, “handsome, pretty, fine”
Derived Terms
English words from this root