• folderol •
Printable Version Pronunciation: fahl-dêr-ahl • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. Balderdash, blather, bunkum, claptrap, codswallop, crap, drivel, flap-doodle, garbage, gobbledygook, hogwash, horse pucky, humbug, malarkey, nonsense, piffle, poppycock, rubbish, twaddle, wish-wash, (add your favorite here). 2. Gewgaw, chachka, knickknack, bauble, doodad, in other words, any showy but worthless trinket.
Notes: English has mounted a formidable arsenal of words to stem the tide of nonsense. As the Meaning shows, today's Good Word is one among a mighty army of synonyms mocking drivel but nothing seems to help. It is used mostly in conversation, so the spelling is a bit shaky: some prefer spelling it falderal. That's OK.
In Play: We are pretty free to substitute today's Good Word for any of those in its first definition: "Members of the Flat Earth Society are convinced that all this nonsense about a round Earth is pure folderol." Don't forget sense No. 2 of this word though: "Madge's place is filled with inherited antiques covered with cheap folderol she collected all over the planet". By the way, no one is seriously considering changing the name of the US capital from 'Washington' to 'Folderopolis"—yep, just more folderol.
Word History: This word started out as a nonsense line in songs of the 19th century. Few of the songs have been recorded since they were mostly sung from memory. Sir Walter Scott included a few lines of an old Scottish ballad in his novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819): “There was a haggis in Dunbar, / Fal de ral, etc. / Mony better and few waur, / Fal de ral, etc.” In his dramatic monologue, Mr. Sludge "The Medium" (1864), Robert Browning begins a paragraph of Mr. Sludge's attempted rationalization of his (mis)deeds with "Fol-lol-the-rido-liddle-iddle-ol!" These lines are not far removed from the fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la sprinkled throughout the Christmas carol, "Deck the Halls".
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