gimcrack, n. and a.
(ˈdʒɪmkræk)
Forms: α. 4 gybe-, gibecrake, 7 jibcrack. β. 7 gimcracke, gincracke, 8 jem-, jimcrack, 9 dial. gimcrank, 7– gimcrack.
[The 14th c. form gibecrake is perh. connected with OF. giber to shake (see jib v.); the primary sense may have been ‘a slight or flimsy ornament’. (For the change to the nasalized forms, cf. mod.F. regimber = OF. regibber to kick.) The second element may be connected in some way with crack n. or v. Sense 3 is perh. in part due to association of the word with gim a. and crack n. 11 and 14.]
A. n.
† 1. App. applied to some kind of inlaid work in wood. Obs.
| 1360 Acc. William de Rothewelle in Pipe Roll No. 204 m. 42 d, Et Eustachio de Glastonia..in precio j tabule cum j piler et Gibecrake bordura cum minutis peciis diversi coloris..j ta ula de quercu j piler et Gybecrake de Buxo, xvjs. viijd. |
2. † a. A fanciful notion; also, a ‘dodge’, underhand design (
obs.).
b. A mechanical contrivance; also
pl. scientific apparatus.
c. Now usually applied to a showy, unsubstantial thing;
esp. to a useless ornament, a trumpery article, a knick-knack.
| 1635 Shirley Coronat. ii. (1640) D ij, Such spectacles Are rare ith' Court, and they were to skirmish naked Before her, then there might be some excuse, There is some gimcrackes in 't, the Queen is wise Above her yeares. 1639 Chapman & Shirley Ball iv. H iij, Luc. There remaines to take away one scruple. Co. Another gimcracke. Luc. I have none, tis your doubt sir. 1676 Walton Angler i. xxi. (ed. 5) 263 Ribbins, and Looking-glasses, and Nut-crackers, and Fiddles, and Hobbyhorses, and many other gim-cracks..and all the other finnimbruns that make a compleat Country Fair. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 34 ¶5 My Eye was diverted by Ten Thousand Gimcracks round the Room. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. vi, What a Devil! is the meaning of all these trangrams and gimcracks [surveying instruments] gentlemen? 1772 Mudge Let. 2 June in Descr. Time-keeper (1799) 23, I am prosecuting my gimcrack with all the vigour I am able, and hope I shall have an opportunity of shewing it to you going (but I fear without the balance spring). 1778 F. Burney Evelina xxiii. (1784) 191 Lord Orville..changed the subject to Cox's Museum, and asked what he thought of it? ‘Think!’ said he, ‘why I think as how it i'n't worth thinking about. I like no such jemcracks.’ 1820 Earl of Dudley Lett. 3 Apr. (1840) 243 This gimcrack [the Brighton Pavilion] is the only monument of the greatest sovereign in Europe. 1849 Thackeray Pendennis II. iii, She praised the lovely breloques or gimcracks which the young gentleman wore at his watch-chain. 1871 Besant & Rice Ready Money Mort. xix, Get me good things: no gim⁓cracks. 1887 A. Gray Lett. (1893) 796 Weisner's physiological laboratory I had an hour or two in, and saw all his gimcracks. |
| attrib. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes ix, No shops so beautiful to look at as the Brighton gimcrack shops. |
† 3. An affected showy person, a fop; in later use applied to women. (A term of
contempt.)
Obs.| 1618 Fletcher Loyal Subj. iv. ii, Enter second Servant..Theod. These are fine gim-cracks. Hey! here comes another; A flagon full of wine in's hand, I take it. 1623 Massinger Dk. Milan iv. iii, He's come. What gimcrack have we next? a 1625 Fletcher Wom. Prize iv. i, But to be made a whim-wham, A Jib-crack, and a Gentleman o' th' first house For all my kindness to her. ― Elder Bro. iii. iii, Lady, I pitie you..this [fellow] is a Gincracke, That can get nothing but new fashions on you. 1706 S. Centlivre Basset-Table ii, I don't think any woman I haue seen since I came ashore worth fighting for. The philosophical gimcrack I don't value of a cockle-shell. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Gimcrack or jimcrack, a spruce wench. |
4. (See
quots. 1785 and 1854.) Now only
dial.| 1766 Franklin Let. Wks. 1887 III. 458 There is also a gimcrack corkscrew, which you must get some brother gim⁓crack to show you the use of. 1785 Grose Dict. Vulg. Tongue s.v., A gimcrack also means a person who has a turn for mechanical contrivances. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss., Gimcrack, or Gimcrank, an universal mechanic, a Jack of all trades. ‘He's quite a gimcrank, he can turn his hand to anything.’ |
B. adj. Trivial, worthless; showy but unsubstantial; trumpery.
| 1750 Chesterfield Lett. (1792) III. ccxxxviii. 91 Your reading should be chiefly hstorical; I do not mean of remote, dark, and fabulous history; still less of jimcrack natural history of fossils, plants [etc.]. 1812 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Hampsh. Farmer's Addr., You are now (thanks to Mr. Whitbread) got into a large, comfortable house. Not into a gim-crack palace..but into a plain, honest, homely, industrious, wholesome, brown, brick playhouse. 1837 Howitt Rur. Life ii. v. (1862) 140 This gimcrack tenement would be crushed in before the brawny hand of a thief. 1844 Alb. Smith Adv. Mr. Ledbury xxxiii. (1886) 99 Some new gimcrack invention, that was to give ten times the light of ordinary oil. 1874 J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 340 The cheap church is generally a gimcrack affair. 1883 Pall Mall G. 6 Sept., A veritable battle of Armageddon seems to be impending in Zululand, and the gimcrack arrangement set up..seems already to have collapsed utterly. 1890 W. C. Russell Ocean Trag. I. iv. 70 Soberly clothed, with nothing more jimcrack in the way of finery upon him than a row of brass waistcoat-buttons. |