Word of the Day:

August 23, 2014

purfle

verb PER-ful

What it Means

: to ornament the border or edges of

Purfle in Context

The guitar maker used abalone shell to purfle the instrument.

"She wore a silk dress purfled with gold, and they compared her beauty to the moon." - Nicholas Jubber, The Prester Quest, June 30, 2011

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Did You Know?

Today we use "purfle" mostly in reference to setting a decorative inlaid border around the body of a guitar or violin, a process known as "purfling." In the past, "purfle" got the most use in connection with adornment of garments. "The Bishop of Ely … wore a robe of scarlet … purfled with minever," reported an English clergyman in 1840, for example. We embellished our language with "purfle," first as "purfilen" in the 1300s, when we took it with its meaning from Middle French "porfiler."

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Fill in the blank to complete this sentence from a former Word of the Day: "Before anyone could catch on to the fact that Roger was embezzling funds from the company, he had _________ to Mexico with over $100,000." The answer is …