* October 28th, to be precise.
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| In the olden days, if someone was talking flibbertigibbet, they were talking nonsense. But is that true, or is it flibbertigibbet? |
1) Flibbertigibbet
As I've mentioned in one of my previous posts, if someone is talking nonsense, then in China you might exclaim, "Dog fart!" to indicate that they're talking rubbish.
In the olden days, they didn't have any insults quite as amusing as "Dog fart!" but they did have the rather cool expression of 'flibbertygibbet'. To elaborate, in the olden days if you wanted to accuse someone of talking nonsense, you might say, "That's flibbertygibbet!"
Real insult or fake insult?
2) Go-Alonger
A 'go-alonger' was, as the name suggests, someone who would go along with anything you told them. Whatever the popular opinion of the day was, you can bet that a 'go-alonger' would blindly go along with it. A go-alonger lacked critical thinking skills, and was easily persuaded by their 'friends', or by those in authority, into pursuing a course of action which was often against their own interests.
Real insult or fake insult?
3) Smollop
A smollop is a dollop of waste produce, so if you were to call someone a smollop it would imply they were of no use to anyone and made up entirely of useless waste!
Real insult or fake insult?
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| Grumbletonian Cat |
4) Grumbletonian
You can probably guess that a grumbletonian was someone who was always moaning and grumbling all the time.
Real insult or fake insult?
5) Flutter bum
A flutter bum was an old fashioned term to describe a hopeless failure with no direction in life, and someone who dragged down those they associated with.
Real insult or fake insult?
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| Cowboy hats ... but no cattle. |
6) All Hat and No Cattle
This refers to someone who is all talk and no action, i.e. someone who repeatedly makes hollow boasts, or who never keeps their promises. A more modern equivalent would perhaps be 'all mouth and no trousers'.
Real insult or fake insult?
7) Snollygoster
A snollygoster was a shrewd unprincipled person motivated by personal gain. For example, a government official who cared more about feathering their own nest than serving the people could be described as a snollygoster.
Thankfully though, government officials today always act in the best interests of the people **shifty eyes**, and never act out of personal gain. Presumably therefore that's why the word snollygoster died out!
Real insult or fake insult?
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| Burn The Witch. A short story featuring this final old fashioned insult. |
8) Tickle-brained urchin-snouted hufty-tufties
Finally, to round things off, here's an insult from my short story 'Burn The Witch'. During a village meeting, one of the townsfolk named Alice, calls the people of neighbouring village Pompousville, "a bunch of tickle-brained urchin-snouted hufty-tufties!"
But is that a real insult from the olden days, or is it just something I made up?
Real insult or fake insult?
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Scroll down the page to find out which insults were real insults from the olden days, and which were fabrications that I made up...
Answers:
1) Flibbertigibbet
Nonsense.
True and false - Flibbertigibbet is a word I just made up, but it turns out by coincidence that it was a real word! Perhaps a more likely explanation is that maybe somewhere in my subconscious I remember hearing this word at some point many years ago and plucked it from my memory.
Anyway, whatever the explanation for my inventing a new word which randomly turned out to be a real word, flibbertigibbet is indeed a real insult. Specifically, a flibbertigibbet was an unreliable, scatterbrained, or gossipy person.
So if you said, 'true,' award yourself a point as it is indeed a real insult. And if you said false then you can also award yourself a point as although it's a real word, my description was made up! I was talking
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| In the olden days, a 'go-alonger' might jump off a bridge if you told them to. Not this bridge though, because this is a modern futuristic bridge in Busan, South Korea. |
2) Go-Alonger
Someone who would go along with anything you told them.
True - Most go-alongers nowadays are cowards (or chicken-hearted, to use another insult from the olden days) as much as they are fools, but in the olden days the insult 'go-alonger' generally referred more to fools than to cowards.
For example, if a go-alonger's 'friends' said to him, "Hey, it would be really funny if you jumped off that bridge," the go-alonger would blindly go along with what his 'friends' suggested and jump off the bridge.
3) Smollop
A dollop of waste produce.
False - I just made this up. It's a shame it's not a real word, though, because I like the sound of it. I can just imagine saying, "Look at that idiot! What a smollop!"
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| Grumbletonian Ostrich |
4) Grumbletonian
Someone who was always moaning and grumbling.
True - Grumbletonian was indeed a real word from the olden days, and as you'd imagine it referred to a miserable person who liked to grumble a lot.
5) Flutter bum
A hopeless failure with no direction in life.
False - A flutter bum is an expression from the olden days, but despite how it may sound, it's not an insult. In fact it's the opposite, because a flutter bum was an old fashioned way to describe an extremely good looking man with catwalk good looks.
I have to admit if someone called me a flutter bum I would immediately think, "What a total cheek!" so I was quite surprised to learn that it's actually a compliment because it sounds like the total opposite to me.
6) All Hat and No Cattle
Someone who is all talk and no action.
True - This was originally used as a reference to people imitating cowboys. They would dress like cowboys and wear the cowboy hat, but they had no actual experience of cowboying.
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| "Government officials always act in the best interests of the people. They're definitely not snollygosters!" |
7) Snollygoster
A shrewd unprincipled person motivated by personal gain.
True - Observant readers with good memories will remember that snollygoster is a real insult, and one I've featured before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog in my 'real word or made up word' quiz.
For the benefit of new readers, or readers with poor memories, a snollygoster is indeed a shrewd unprincipled person motivated by personal gain. For example, ******* ***** or **** *******, but definitely not ******* ***********!
8) Tickle-brained urchin-snouted hufty-tufties
Boastful drunk with a nose like a hedgehog.
True - My research revealed that this was a genuine collection of various real insults from the olden days.
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How did you do? Check out the table below to see how skilled you are in the art of insult:
6-8 Well done! You're obviously an expert at insulting people.
3-5 Not bad, but not great. Your insulting skills are fairly average.
0-2 Ha, ha! You're a total smollop! Your answers were total flibbertigibbet!
You can find more old fashioned insults in my previous blog post:
True or false: Old fashioned insults
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