Word of the Day

: December 12, 2014

flapdoodle

noun FLAP-doo-dul

What It Means

: nonsense

flapdoodle in Context

"Not a trace of academic fustian! Not a line of flapdoodle! Not a hint of college professor! Here was sharp and shrewd judgment." - H. L. Mencken, The Smart Set, June 1917

"Chalk that up to the triumph-rare enough these days-of facts over flapdoodle." - Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2013

Did You Know?

Combining the letters f, d, and l is a great formula for creating funny words-witness folderol, fiddlesticks, fandangle, flamdoodle, flummadiddle, and fiddledeedee. To ascribe pedigreed origins to any of those silly syllables would be fiddle-faddle. Flapdoodle certainly can't claim high-flown ancestors. Like many of its nonsensical fellows listed above, it most likely originated as an alteration of some other absurd word (fadoodle is a candidate), but its exact origins are unknown.