Other forms: ornaments
An ornament is a small object kept only because it is pretty. China ornaments, a shelf of ornaments, a Christmas ornament.
It has no use beyond being looked at, which is the whole definition and the whole argument about them. In music, an ornament is a decorative note added to a melody — a trill, a grace note — and in Baroque music the ornaments were often left to the performer. As a verb it means to decorate. Note ornamental, ornate; and that the Latin means equipment as much as decoration.
1nounornamentA small object kept only because it is pretty.
“She dusted the china ornaments on the mantelpiece.”
2noundecorativeA decorative note added to a melody.
“The pianist added a trill and other ornaments to the simple tune.”
ornament is a decoration.
Also accepted in games: decoration
Latin ornamentum comes from ornare, to equip or adorn. Adorn and ornate come from the same word, which meant fitting something out before it meant making it pretty.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂er-
Latin
ornamentum — equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment
Old French
ornement
Middle English
ornament
English, today
ornament
Built from
From Middle English ornament, from Old French ornement, from Latin ornamentum (“equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment”), from ornō (“to equip, adorn”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA