Furbelow. Pleated and festooned bands of fabric that are applied to women’s dresses and petticoats. The embellishment of petticoats in particular is called a furbelow ; it is all known also as a flounce ; that of dresses is commonly called a pretintaille . [1] The furbelows are placed in overlapping rows around the petticoat; this fashion, it is said, is very old, but the word is new.

There’s a story about two of those type of men who are weighed down by fashion and ridicule, and who ruin themselves in order to be well-liked, walking through the halls of the palace; [2] the shopkeepers try to sell them everything, as usual: there is nothing, said one of them, that can’t be found here; you will even find things here that don’t exist, responded the other: make up a word that is nothing but a sound that has no meaning, all these women will give it one; furbelows was the word that was proposed, and the embellishments of dresses were presented with confidence in response to this word that had just been made up, and that that’s what they’ve been called ever since.

Scholars who study antiquity would, if they could, place the origin of furbelows as far back as the Flood; it is honor enough for this fashion that it was passed on from the Persians to the Romans; various legislators who were the enemies of luxury, it is said, condemned them; but the graces and taste are subject only to the laws of love and pleasure.

That great wheel of the world which brings back all events, brings back all fashions as well, and has today caused furbelows to reappear more dazzling than ever, the richest fabrics are adorned with them, the most common are mounted with them, and women — beauties, plain ones, flirts, and prudes alike – have furbelows even on their most intimate underskirts: even the devout wear them, in the name of excessive cleanliness: it is easier to renounce the pleasure of love than the desire to please. [3]

Notes:

1. I have found no translation of this term. However, in the ARTFL FRANTEXT database it first appears in Rousseau’s Confessions (1762) and then in a poem by Voltaire. In 1829, Pierre Beranger borrowed the term for the subject of a popular song: “La Marquise de Pretintaille.” In 1836 she was brought to the Paris stage in “La marquise de Pretintaille,” a one-act comedy by Bayard and Dumanoir.

2. The reference here is to the Palais marchand. In the 1770s, the Almanach parisien called the Palais marchand “no less interesting for tourists” than the hall of justice (known simply as the “Palais”) to which it was attached. “It is a long row of covered stalls, which precede and serve as vestibules for the Palais, where justice is rendered. All the stalls are full of merchants, who sell an infinite quantity of bijoux of all sorts (literally, jewels, but figuratively, any expensive trinkets), and other merchants as well,” (my translation). Daniel Roche, ed., Almanach parisien en faveur des étrangers et des personnes curieuses (Saint-Etienne : Publications de l’Université de Saint-Etienne, 2001).

3. Furbelow is one of only two articles in the Encyclopedia known to have been written by a woman. In the preface to volume 6, in which it appears, Diderot introduces those who have contributed articles to the volume, including, “A Woman whom we have the honor to know, [who] has sent us the articles FURBELOW, FONTANGE, and others.” It has been speculated that the author is Suzanne Marie de Vivens, marquise de Jaucourt, the sister-in-law of the most prolific contributor to the Encyclopedia . In the article, “Encyclopedia,” published in volume 5, Diderot referred to furbelows and pompoms as examples of seemingly frivolous topics that would someday be of interest to scholars.