frumpy

English

WOTD – 12 March 2009

Etymology

Either from frump or from Middle English frumple +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹʌm.pɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɹʌm.pi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (US) -ʌmpi

Adjective

frumpy (comparative frumpier, superlative frumpiest)

1. Dowdy, unkempt, or unfashionable.

   She came to the door in a frumpy housedress and bedroom slippers.

   • July 23 2005, Siobhan Roberts, “John Horton Conway: the world’s most charismatic mathematician”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Although still young at heart and head, he looks more and more like his old friend Archimedes, increasingly bearded and increasingly grey, with an otherworldly mien – a look that should earn him a spot in the online quiz featuring portraits of frumpy old men under the rubric “Prof or Hobo?”

2. (dated) Bad-tempered.

Related terms

• frump
• frumpily
• frumpiness

Translations

dowdy, unfashionable

• Dutch: ouderwets (nl), stijlloos (nl)
• Finnish: tyylitön (fi)
• French: démodé (fr)
• German: ohne jeden Schick, stillos (de)
• Portuguese: antiquado (pt), ultrapassado (pt), "démodé (pt)"
• Russian: безвку́сный (ru) (bezvkúsnyj), немо́дный (ru) (nemódnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: neukusno (sh), demodirano, staromodno (sh)
• Swedish: tantig (sv)
• Vietnamese: lôi thôi (vi), lếch thếch (vi)