Word To Use Today: frieze.

All right, frieze may be one of the dullest words on earth, and, all right, it only means either a thick woollen fuzzy fabric or a painted border along the top bit of a wall, but the poor word has come down a long way, okay, and I think we should cherish it, out of pity if nothing else.


frieze on Royal Albert Hall, London. Photo by David Hawgood  CC BY-SA 2.0

Word To Use Today: frieze. The fabric word comes from the Old French frise and may be something to do with Frisian, but is more likely something to do with frizz, which is from the French friser, to curl. This fabric sort of frieze was occasionally fashionable, but mostly it was a fabric made for the poor, especially the poor of Ireland. (This form of the word hasn't really come down in the world because it had nowhere lower to go, poor thing.)

The painted-border word comes from the French frise, from the Latin Phrygium. The Phrygians (who lived from about 800BC - 600AD, first in the Southern Balkans and then in Turkey) were famous for their gold embroidery.