fi-fi

See also: fifi, Fifi, and fifí

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

fi-fi (comparative more fi-fi, superlative most fi-fi)

  1. (dated) Scandalous; immoral; applied to literature and stories.
    • 1897, Elizabeth Lynn Linton, Dulcie Everton, page 34:
      Virtuous, orthodox, unromantic, respectable, they had not the makings of an Ibsen play or a fi-fi novel among them.
    • 1985, Michael M. Thomas, Tough Times for the Fi-Fi Novel (in The New York Times, October 20)

References
  • 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary: "Thackeray's term for Paul de Kock's novels, and similar modern French literature."
  • 1894, Isaac Kaufman Funk, A Standard Dictionary of the English Language (page 677): "Scandalous; immoral; as, a fi-fi novel or anecdote."
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