Talk:Finery

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I've undone the change to "Distinctive and beautiful clothing or jewelry" as a definition; "finery" (in the fashion sense) explicitly refers to overly ostentatious clothing and jewellery, not fancy clothes in general and certainly not "distinctive and beautiful". a) Beauty or elegance viewed disparigingly, b) Smartness, stylishness, affected or ostentatious elegance or splendour, c)Gaudy and showy decoration if you want the full OED dicdefs. With regards to metallurgy, a finery is the hearth (a contraction of refinery), not the process. (In the 19th century it could refer to the act of refining ore in general, but that's a long-obsolete usage.) ‑ Iridescent 16:54, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Finery is definitely not only a negative word. For example "Finery is fancy and expensive clothing and jewelry. A lot of high school students look forward to the prom as a chance to dress up in their finery. Your fanciest clothes are finery, especially if they're elaborate or pricey." other pages call it 'Sunday best" Legacypac (talk) 18:08, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

My comment isn't a value judgement; the three definitions given above are the only definitions (aside from the alt meanings of "hearth", "obsolete term for craftsmanship" and "obsolete term for refining ore") in the OED, copied-and-pasted verbatim. ‑ Iridescent 18:22, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

But the OED is not the sole definer of words either. Legacypac (talk) 18:38, 19 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Finery has no relevance to conspicuous consumption, so that should never be linked. [1] There is actually no need to mention the non–WP-article definition on this dab page; there is a Wikitionary link there already; and we usually don't mention dicdefs on dab pages if there is no dedicated article on the subject (that's what Wikitionary is for). Since the common meaning of finery does not have a dedicated WP article, either omit the dicdef entry, or keep it neutral. Softlavender (talk) 22:13, 20 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]