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parergon

[ pa-rur-gon ]

noun

, plural par·er·ga [pa-, rur, -g, uh].
  1. something that is an accessory to a main work or subject; embellishment.
  2. work undertaken in addition to one's principal work.


parergon

/ pəˈrɛəɡɒn /

noun

  1. work that is not one's main employment
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of parergon1

First recorded in 1595–1605; < Latin parergon “extra ornament,” from Greek párergon “secondary business, side job,” noun use of neuter of párergos “beside the main subject, subordinate,” equivalent to par- par- 1( def ) + érg(on) work + -os adj. suffix
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Word History and Origins

Origin of parergon1

C17: from Latin, from Greek, from para- 1+ ergon work
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Example Sentences

Clinch has done something remarkable in “Marley,” not merely offering a parergon to Dickens’s little masterpiece, imagining the soil out of which the action of “A Christmas Carol” grows, but creating a free-standing dystopian universe, a hideous vision of nascent capitalism in which nothing is real and every transaction is a fraud issuing from the brain of a master forger, who by the end has reduced even his own life, quite literally, to a trompe l’oeil.

“Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s,” at Blum & Poe.

“Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s,” at Blum & Poe.

“Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s,” at Blum & Poe.

“Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s,” at Blum & Poe.

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pareraparesis