Other forms: embroideries
Embroidery is decoration stitched into cloth with a needle and thread. Flowers round the edge of a pillowcase, initials on a handkerchief, a name sewn onto the pocket of a work shirt.
The word covers the craft, the skill and the finished thing: she took up embroidery, the embroidery on the collar came loose, a piece of embroidery framed above the stairs. The tools have their own names — an embroidery hoop holds the cloth tight, embroidery thread comes in small skeins of every colour. The verb is embroider, and it leads a second life: to embroider a story is to add invented detail to make it better, which is why an embroidered account is not quite true. Keep embroidery apart from weaving and knitting, which make the cloth; embroidery goes on top of cloth that already exists. It is uncountable for the craft and countable for single works: two small embroideries in a glass case.
1nounembroideryThe craft of decorating cloth with designs sewn in thread.
“She learned embroidery from her grandmother.”
synonyms: needlework
2nounstitchedThe stitched decoration itself, or a piece of work made this way.
“The embroidery on the sleeves had faded to pink.”
3nouninventedInvented extra detail added to a story.
“The bones of his account are true; the rest is embroidery.”
embroidery is a needlework craft.
The trail runs back to Middle French embrouderie, formed from the verb embrouder plus the ending -erie, which turns a doing into the name of a craft. English borrowed the finished French word, and the verb embroider came with it.
Middle French
embrouderie
English, today
embroidery
From Middle French embrouderie, from embrouder + -erie. by surface analysis, embroider + -y.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA