Meaning

noun a showy decoration that is basically valueless

noun a thread with glittering metal foil attached

verb impart a cheap brightness to

originThe noun is derived from Middle English tinsel (“cloth containing gold or silver thread”) [and other forms], probably from Anglo-Norman tincel, tincelle, tencele, and then: * from Old French estincelle, estencele (“a spark”) (modern French étincelle), from Vulgar Latin *stincilla, a metathesis of Latin scintilla (“a glimmer; a spark”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“to shimmer,…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0