Polyfilla

English

Etymology

From the trade name of a brand of spackling paste.

Noun

Polyfilla (uncountable)

1. (British) A metaphorical filler to minimize or obscure defects.
   • 1984, Gerardus Antonius Maria Janssens, ‎Flor Aarts, Studies in Seventeenth-century English Literature, History and Bibliography

     He writes in well filled fourteeners, with individual words used not only vitally to convey the sense but also as a kind of metrical polyfilla.

   • 2013, Julian Bagginni, I Still Love Kierkegaard (in Aeon magazine, May 6, 2013)

     Kierkegaard saw clearly that faith is not a kind of epistemic Polyfilla that closes the small cracks left by reason, but a mad leap across a chasm devoid of all reason.

Derived terms

• polyfill