frammis

English edit

Unknown. Originated in the US in the 1930s; perhaps merely a nonsense word.

frammis (plural frammises)

(US, slang) Synonym of gizmo
- 1938, The Year Book of the Class of 1938: Dedham High School, page 33, column 1:
  Right now all his spare time is spent at Moseleys, roller skating for hours on end. "Foozle the frammis snaffle," says Bob, "or don't you like it?"
- 1938, The American Biology Teacher, volume 24, page 341, column 2:
  Are you satisfied that your multiplicative inverse rests securely on its Cartesian coordinates with its cosecant separated from the frammis by the rigid transformation of its orthogonal projection?
- 1947, Men's Wear, volume 114, page 90, column 1:
  "Frammis on the Antispode": The doubletalk heading this paragraph takes the sting out of Mr. Ruark's comment, even if his gay colored foulard Sinatra bow tie didn't contradict his comment[.]
- 1949 January 1, Collier's Magazine, page 56, column 4:
  "Listen, I caulderoled the nurse for a minute and sneaked down the frammis." "What?" "I had to talk to you."
- 1963 May, Mademoiselle, page 225, column 2:
  But how can they react helpfully to orders that sound like, "Shift the shackle on the frammis to the glotz"?
(US, slang) A confidence trick; a swindle.
- 1957 May, Jim Thompson, Alfred Hitchcock's Suspense Magazine, page 18, column 1:
  And what they added up to was curtains - for him. He'd really stepped into something this time: a Grade-A jam, an honest-to-Hannah, double-distilled frammis.