faux

   French for false, artificial, fake. English speakers say "faux" to give a high-toned quality to what is often an imitation of a natural material — leather, fur, metal, or stone for example. Although faux materials are usually less expensive than the real thing, there can be other advantages to them: durability, uniformity, weight, color, and availability perhaps. There can be allegorical advantages too (falsity can have its purposes!) particularly when juxtaposed with opulence. Faux finishes are painted simulations of other materials — the look of their colors and textures. Examples include: stones (marble, granite, sandstone, malachite, porphyry, serpentine, lapis, etc.), wood (also called faux bois — false wood), masonry, and metal (gold, silver,and bronze, along with all of their potential patinas). A faux marble might be a substitute like terrazzo or scagliola, each of which employ marble dust in a plaster binder to result in a hard material that will take a polish. See the article on "marbling" for a discussion of marbling papers as well as faux-marbling as a painting technique. (pr. foh) Also see copy, counterfeit, forgery, gold leaf, likeness, marbling, naturalism, silver leaf, simulacrum, stipple, tortoiseshell, trompe l'oeil, and truth.