Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flummery |
FlummeryNoun1. A bland custard or pudding especially of oatmeal. 2. Meaningless ceremonies and flattery. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flummery" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1838. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Flummery Flattering nonsense, palaver. In Wales it is a food made of oatmeal steeped in water and kept till it has become sour. In Cheshire and Lancashire it is the prepared skin of oatmeal mixed with honey, ale, or milk; pap; blancmange. (Welsh, llymry, wash-brew, from llym, sour or sharp.) "You came ... with your red coats and flashing buttons ... and her head got turned with your flummery." - Simms: The Partizans, chap. xxix. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Mining | A smooth porcellanous rock resembling porridge in color and texture; Carboniferous limestone, Hunts quarry, Porthywaen, and Vale of Clwyd,north Wales. Also called flummery stone. (references) |
Slang in 1811 | FLUMMERY. Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also compliments, neither of which are over-nourishing. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: FlummerySynonym: mummery (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Flattery | Incense, honeyed words, flummery; bunkum, buncombe; blarney, placebo, butter; soft soap, soft sawder; rose water. |
Unmeaningness | Nonsense, utter nonsense, gibberish; jargon, jabber, mere words, hocus-pocus, fustian, rant, bombast, balderdash, palaver, flummery, verbiage, babble, baverdage, baragouin, platitude, niaiserie; inanity; flap-doodle; rigmarole, rodomontade; truism; nugae canorae; twaddle, twattle, fudge, trash, garbage, humbug; stuff, stuff and nonsense; bosh, rubbish, moonshine, wish-wash, fiddle-faddle; absurdity; vagueness; (unintelligibility). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Flummery |
| English words defined with "flummery": Sowens. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "flummery": HOVEL. (references) |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | HOVEL, n. The fruit of a flower called the Palace. Twaddle had a hovel, Twiddle had a palace; Twaddle said: "I'll grovel Or he'll think I bear him malice" -- A sentiment as novel As a castor on a chalice. Down upon the middle Of his legs fell Twaddle And astonished Mr. Twiddle, Who began to lift his noddle. Feed upon the fiddle- Faddle flummery, unswaddle A new-born self-sufficiency and think himself a [mockery.] G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Flummery" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Flummery" is used about 6 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 6 | 143,867 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
digest flummery | 3 |
flummery | 3 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "flummery"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | puding, lajka (blandishment, butter, flatteries, oiliness, palaver, taffy), dokrra (balderdash, drivel, drool, footle, moonshine, poppycock). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | яйчен крем с плодове и желатин, празни комплименти, плоски приказки. (various references) | |
Czech | pokrm (dish, Farina, fricassee, pinole, quenelle, repast, Sillabub, victual). (various references) | |
German | leere Schmeichelei. (various references) | |
Greek | κουρκούτι (gruel, mush, pap), μωρία (moronism, silliness, witlessness). (various references) | |
Hungarian | tojáskrém, zabkása (gruel, porridge, stirabout, stir-about), tejkrém, sületlenség (hogwash, tomfoolery). (various references) | |
Manx | cowree (sowins). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ummeryflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | parvice, mingau de aveia (burgoo, oatmeal, stirabout), manjar (custard), elogio servil, disparate (absurdity, balderdash, blather, blether, bloomer, bosh, bull, bunk, disparate, fiddle-de-dee, fiddlestick, flapdoodle, foolery, foolishness, fribble, fudge, guff, gup, hot, howler, moonshine, mush, nonsense, piffle, punk, simplicity, skittle, tomfoolery, tommy rot, tripe, tump, twaddle, unreason, unwisdom). (various references) | |
Romanian | fleac (a piece of cake, bauble, bunkum, chaff, doit, fillip, flapdoodle, flea-bite, fribble, kickshaw, knick knack, nil, nothing, nothingness, peppercorn, pin head, push over, rot, rubbish, rubble, small beer, stiver, tittle tattle, trash, trifle, trinket), mâncare uşoarã. (various references) | |
Russian | род дрочены. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prazni komplimenti, kačamak (polenta). (various references) | |
Spanish | tonterías (bosh, bunk, foolishness, idiocy, pap, rubbish, stupidity, tommyrot, trifle). (various references) | |
Turkish | yulaf ezmeli yemek, yaltaklanma (adulation, blarney, flattery, sliminess), unlu bir tatlı, palavra (applesauce, baloney, boasting, boloney, bounce, braggadocio, bragging, bunk, bunkum, claptrap, cock and bull story, eyewash, fish story, flubdub, gaff, hot air, jazz, lie, palaver, talkee-talkee, tall story), boş lâf (applesauce, babble, balderdash, bosh, bunkum, comment, empty words, falderal, fiddle, fiddle-de-dee, flimflam, flubdub, froth, fudge, gab, galimatias, garbage, gas, guff, haver, hokum, hooey, hot air, inanity, jazz, lark, moonshine, palaver, poppycock, punk, routine, small talk, talky-talk, tripe, vaporings, vapourings, waffle, wind, wishy-wash), anlamsız kompliman. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | вівсяна каша (cereal, oatmeal, stirabout), пусті компліменти. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | lời nịnh hót ngớ ngẩn chuyện vớ vẩn, lời khen cửa miệng. (various references) | |
Welsh | llymru. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Flummery" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: flumer, flummey, flumper, Fulimori, fummery, plumery. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-f-l-m-m-r-u-y" | |
-2 letters: fleury. | |
-3 letters: femur, ferly, flume, flyer, fumer, lemur, muley, refly, rummy. | |
-4 letters: elmy, fley, flue, fuel, fume, fumy, furl, fury, lure, lyre, merl, mule, mure, rely, rule, ruly, ylem, yule. | |
-5 letters: elf, elm, emf, emu, fem, fer, feu, fey, flu, fly, fry, fur, leu, ley, lum, lye, mel, mem, mum, ref, rem, rue, rum. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Quotations: Non-fiction | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
