CSOFT’s Wacky Word Wednesday – Folderol

Warm up your voice and put on your singing belt for CSOFT’s Wacky Word Wednesday, a weekly celebration of the wackiest and most interesting words from around the world.

Folderol[FAHL-duh-rahl]-noun A useless ornament or accessory; nonsense.

Folderol, one of the many English words that mean “nonsense,” came from fol-de-rol (or fal-de-ral), a meaningless filler often featured in old songs. It’s not so different from the “fa-la-la-la-la” in the classic Christmas carol “Deck the Halls.” Folderol, which is now usually spelled with an “a” (folderal), can also mean trivial, useless ornament or wasted effort. Other words that have similar meanings are trinket, hogwash, trifle, and gewgaw. The earliest recorded use of folderol occurs in Sir Harry Wildair, a play written by Irish writer George Farquhar in 1701, in which a character sings “Fal, al, deral.”

Folderol is still used by song writers of our day. For example, in Rod Stewart’s Lady Luck:

Lady Luck

Yeah, it’s late I know

Allow me to buy you one more folderol

And tell me something

I’ve been longin’ to hear

It’s gotta get better next year

If you’re not a song writer but would like to use CSOFT’s Wacky Word Wednesday word to enrich your vocabulary, check out some examples below:

• Stacy wanted nothing to do with the fuss and folderol of Valentine’s Day and felt lucky that she had found in Lucas a partner who felt the same way.
• We are overwhelmed with data from every quarter, and our capacity to filter fact from fraud is limited.… Men and women of good intent who simply seek ‘the truth’ upon which to base their opinions find themselves awash in folderol.” (Doug McIntyre, Daily Beast, December 3, 2014)

That’s all for today’s edition of CSOFT’s Wacky Word Wednesday. Enjoy the rest of the week and we’ll see you again soon!

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