frou-frou

See also: froufrou, froofroo, froo-froo, frufru, and frufrú

English

Alternative forms

• froufrou, froo-froo, fru-fru, froofroo, frufru

Etymology

Borrowed from French frou-frou, an onomatopoeia.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹuːfɹuː/
• Hyphenation: frou‧frou

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

frou-frou (plural frou-frous)

1. (onomatopoeia) A rustling sound, particularly the rustling of a large silk dress.
   • 1870 June 4, Athenaeum, page 734:

     The modern frou-frou of satin and gros-de-Naples skirts is nothing to the rustling of brocaded silks.

   • 1876, William Besant et al., The Golden Butterfly, act I, scene vi, line 108:

     […] the frou-frou of life was lost to her […]

   • 1901, Jack London, “The Great Interrogation”, in The God of His Fathers‎^[1], New York: McClure, Phillips & Co., page 34:

     She was pretty, charming, and, moreover, a widow. And because of this she at once had at heel any number of Eldorado Kings, officials, and adventuring younger sons, whose ears were yearning for the frou-frou of a woman’s skirts.

   • 1904 December, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Second Stain”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

     “Now, Watson, the fair sex is your department,” said Holmes, with a smile, when the dwindling frou-frou of skirts had ended in the slam of the front door.

   • 1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March 1912, →OCLC, page 94:

     Lord Grenville took a hasty farewell of the ladies and slipped back into his box, where M. Chauvelin had sat all through this entr’acte, with his eternal snuff-box in his hand, and with his keen pale eyes intently fixed upon a box opposite to him, where, with much frou-frou of silken skirts, much laughter and general stir of curiosity amongst the audience, […]

   • 2014 September 6, Tony Roberts, “Poem to a Friend Feeling Out of His Element”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Impervious to the cheap perfumes
     and the frou-frou of young ladies' skirts,
     he finally and with deepest dread
     plunged ahead, banging in his ignorance
     on the keys as if they were a snare drum.

Adjective

frou-frou (comparative more frou-frou, superlative most frou-frou)

1. Liable to create the sound of rustling cloth, similar to 19th-century dresses.
2. Highly ornamented, overly elaborate; excessively girly.

   They ate in a frou-frou restaurant at the top of a skyscraper.

   • 2009 September 1, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Strong Bad Email #204: dictionary”, in Homestar Runner‎^[3], spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):

     Kinda like a frou-frou dessert at a chichi restaurant, restaurant.

   • 2012 June 30, Miranda Sawyer, “Rewind radio: Love Love Love Like the Beatles; Is It Worth It?; 6-Love-6”, in The Observer‎^[4], →ISSN:

     This is a column for a Sunday paper, designed to be absorbed at leisure, over coffee and frou-frou pastries, at around noon.

   • 2023 January 21, Andrew Lawrence, “Netflix’s Reed Hastings changed the way we watch TV – for better or for worse”, in The Guardian‎^[5], →ISSN:

     For the price of a frou-frou Starbucks drink, a Netflix subscriber could binge this content ad nauseam without suffering through a single commercial – the ideal home viewing experience.

3. (derogatory) Unimportant, silly, useless.

   Bob was off faffing about doing frou-frou nonsense whilst Edwina kept her nose to the grindstone.

   • 2008 July 15, Matthew Yglesias, “Obama's Elitism Problem, Continued”, in The Atlantic‎^[6]:

     Barack Obama, out of touch with the working man as usual, has an aggressive program for carbon emissions reductions and has spoken of the need for such frou-frou measures as increased investment in transit infrastructure, intercity rail, and even bicycling.

   • 2024 September 28, Harry Blank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, in Deadlined, →ISBN, pages 580–581:

     Dr. Okorie: Those paintings on the walls have a definite effect on people. A very specific definite effect, with wildly variable results. Would you call them de-inhibitors, Lillian?
     Dr. Lillihammer: I'd call them cognition divergence vectors. I've already got the paper half-written in my mind.
     Dr. Blank: Explain it to us froufrou hard and social scientists.
     Dr. Wettle: I'm not froufrou, you're froufrou.

Verb

frou-frou (third-person singular simple present frou-frous, present participle frou-frouing, simple past and past participle frou-froued)

1. (uncommon, intransitive) To move with the sound of rustling dresses.
   • 1894 October, The Vassar Miscellany, volume 26, page 81:

     “Oh, you funny girl! You look so surprised. Confess, now, there's nothing you can hide from me,” and ruffling my hair as she passed she frou-froued out of the room.

   • 1905 May 18, Truth, page 1289:

     […] frou-frouing femininities […]

Usage notes

Almost exclusively seen in the form frou-frouing.

References

• “frou-frou, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
• “frou-frou, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.

French

Etymology

Imitative.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fʁu.fʁu/

Noun

frou-frou m (plural frous-frous)

1. a frou-frou; a rustling sound, as of silk fabric

Derived terms

• froufrouter

Descendants

• → English: frou-frou
• → Portuguese: frufru
• → Spanish: frufrú

Further reading

• “frou-frou”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.