foppery

noun

fop·​pery ˈfä-p(ə-)rē How to pronounce foppery (audio)
plural fopperies
1
: foolish character or action : folly
2
: the behavior or dress of a fop

Did you know?

The word fop once referred to a foolish or silly person, a meaning that is now obsolete. The current sense of "fop" - a man who is extremely devoted to or vain about his appearance or dress - still holds a rather quaint charm. "Fop," which derives from Middle English, is related loosely to a Middle High German word meaning "to deceive" and dates from the 15th century. The noun "foppery" arrived on the scene in English about a century later. Its "folly" sense can be found in Shakespeare’s King Lear, where Edmund speaks of "the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune, often the surfeit of our own behaviour, we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars…."

Examples of foppery in a Sentence

regards the platform shoe as one of the unfortunate fopperies of the 1970s that should remain buried in fashion's scrap heap

Word History

First Known Use

1546, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of foppery was in 1546

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Dictionary Entries Near foppery

Cite this Entry

“Foppery.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foppery. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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