Usually it’s a thin device, to begin a piece with a dictionary definition. I remember receiving criticism for such a thing in high school assignments. So I’m impressed with the new Sprint ad on TV right now, featuring the CEO of the company as he claims to have looked up the word “unlimited.” Sure, right. (Oh but the ads are getting bad. There’s another one starring a depressed spatula, whose ambition to flip burgers will never be realized. Again, I tried skits like that when I was a teenager, and learned from audience reactions that the idea is neither unique nor instructive).

The only time it’s okay to begin with a dictionary definition is when you’re talking about a word. Today’s word is paraphernalia.

I’ve been meaning to look it up for years. A considerable while ago I ran across a statement I believed but didn’t seek to substantiate: that “paraphernalia” refers to the property a woman brings to marriage which is not part of her dowry.

Today I checked. For this it is handy to own a print dictionary.

Although the first definition is personal belongings, and the second gets closer to what we all agree on – any collection of articles, usually things used in some activity – the third is property or possessions (other than dower), given over to the control, but not complete possession, of a wife.

It’s a plural noun. It’s from the Latin paraphernalia bona, but that’s really from the Greek (para beyond and pherne dower (from pherein, to bring)). In Roman law, the parapherna was the woman’s property as described above, and it remained at her disposal even after her husband’s death.

I think Paraphernalia would be a great name for a magazine. It is probably most appropriate for a periodical about financial issues, directed to women in general and perhaps wives in particular, but I wouldn’t limit it that way. Paraphernalia would serve a wider audience than that, and would aim to become part of everyone’s equipment. Got your Paraphernalia?