ornament

Etymology

From Middle English ornament, from Old French ornement, from Latin ornamentum (“equipment, apparatus, furniture, trappings, adornment, embellishment”), from ornāre, present active infinitive of ornō (“I equip, adorn”). The verb is derived from the noun.

noun

1. An element of decoration; that which embellishes or adorns.
   I'm a bit short on brain myself; the old bean would appear to have been constructed more for ornament than for use. 1919, P. G. Wodehouse, My Man Jeeves
   Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story. 2012-03, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 2013-02-19, page 106
2. A Christmas tree decoration.
3. (music) A musical flourish that is unnecessary to the overall melodic or harmonic line, but serves to decorate that line.
4. (Christianity, in the plural) The articles used in church services.
5. (biology) A characteristic that has a decorative function (typically in order to attract a mate)

verb

1. To decorate.
   We will ornament the windows with trim to make the room seem brighter.
2. To add to.
   The editor ornamented his plain writing, making it fancier but less clear.
   Not a scene goes by that hasn't been ornamented with a split screen, a freeze frame, a caption, a voice-over, a switch between monochrome and colour, or a change of the aspect radio[sic]. July 12 2021, Nicholas Barber, “The French Dispatch: Four stars for Wes Anderson's latest”, in BBC