flim-flam
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See also: flimflam
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Reduplication, 1538 as noun, 1660 as verb. Perhaps from a dialectal word or Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
flim-flam (countable and uncountable, plural flim-flams)
- Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense
- Most reports of supernatural occurrences turn out to be flim-flam when carefully investigated.
- confidence game, con game
- (archaic) Table tennis.
Derived terms[edit]
- flim-flam man (“confidence trickster”)
- flam
- flim
References[edit]
- ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “flim-flam”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
- Flimflam / Claptrap, The Word Detective, 2009–04–13
Further reading[edit]
Categories:
- English reduplications
- Rhymes:English/æm
- Rhymes:English/æm/2 syllables
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English multiword terms
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with archaic senses
- English apophonic reduplications