Other forms: sequins
A sequin is a tiny shiny disc sewn on to catch the light. Covered in sequins, a sequin dress, sequins everywhere.
They are sewn through a central hole and overlap like scales so that the fabric still moves, which is why a well-made sequinned garment is heavy and flexible at once. The word was a Venetian gold coin before it was a decoration — the discs were named after the coins they resembled. Note sequinned.
1nounsequinA tiny shiny disc sewn on to catch the light.
“Her dress was covered in silver sequins that sparkled under the lights.”
sequin is a decoration.
French sequin comes from Italian zecchino, a Venetian gold coin, from zecca, a mint, from Arabic sikka, a coin die.
Arabic
سِكَّة — die for coining, coin
Italian
zecchino
French
sequin
English, today
sequin
Built from
Borrowed from French sequin, from Italian zecchino, from zecca (“mint”), from Arabic سِكَّة (“die for coining, coin”). a doublet of zecchin.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA