Tidy Lookup
All sites11
Curious Word of the Daycuriouswordoftheday.com

folderol

noun /ˈfɒldəɹəl/

  1. Nonsense or foolishness.

    uncountable

    William Maclay, a Pennsylvania Democrat and a senator, was a watchdog against the development of any monarchial folderol gathering about the office of the president.

  2. A decorative object of little value; a trifle or gewgaw.

    countable

    And they made a mistake there: the prizes were a lot of folderols and doodads like poetry books and illustrated Testaments, instead of something a real live kid would want to work for, like real cash or a speedometer for his motor cycle.

Where it comes from

Originally a nonsense refrain in songs, since circa 1701, as "fal, al, deral!", and 1820, used to make the song longer without adding more meaningful content (see non-lexical vocables in music). Compare falleri, fallera, extended as falleralla or fallerallera, in Swedish and German songs.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry folderol (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← foistfoldstool →

Another random word More words starting with F