flim-flam

See also: flimflam

English

Alternative forms

• flimflam, flim flam

Etymology

Ultimately a sound-symbolic reduplication, 1538 as noun, 1660 as verb. Perhaps from a dialectal word or North Germanic/Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æm
• IPA^(key): /ˈflɪmflæm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

flim-flam (countable and uncountable, plural flim-flams)

1. Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonsense

   Most reports of supernatural occurrences turn out to be flim-flam when carefully investigated.

2. confidence game, con game
3. (archaic) Table tennis.

Derived terms

• flim-flam man (“confidence trickster”)
• flam
• flim

References

• Flimflam / Claptrap, The Word Detective, 2009–04–13

Further reading

• flim-flam on Wikipedia.Wikipedia