fefnicute

English

Alternative forms

• faffnecute, feffnecute

Etymology

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

Noun

fefnicute (plural fefnicutes)

1. (Lancashire) A two-faced, sneaky person.
   • 1856 [1851], anonymous ["a fellow from Rochdale"], O Ful, Tru, un Pertikler Okeawnt o Bwoth Wat Aw Seed un Wat Aw Yerd We Gooin To Th' Greyt Eggshibishun e Lundun‎^[1], 3rd edition, Wrigley and Son, page 46:

     Aw’v no payshuns we um un ther kaps o liberte; ther naut but o parsel o feffnecutes, powsedurts us they r.

   • 1895, John Trafford Clegg, “Calder Valley”, in The Works of John Trafford Clegg, "Th' Owd Weighver.": Stories, Sketches, and Rhymes in the Rochdale Dialect‎^[2], Clegg, page 397:

     "What mak o' lennock faffnecutes an' ricklin bandyhewits are they? Tell me some sthrong words, Weighver; aw've noane 'at con do justice to sich heighvy-keighvy pickhawms!"

   • 1964–1965 (published 1968), Soong May-ling, Selected Speeches, 1965-1966, page 195:

     Just prior to V-J (Victory over Japan) Day, this fefnicute Lin Piao visited Chungking to pay respects to his Commandant and preceptor.

   • 2011 September 9, Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, Words We Don't Use (Much Anymore): The Meaning of Words And Where They Come From, Gill & Macmillan Ltd, →ISBN:

     Later that evening she rang me, calling the locum some choice names, including fefnicute. The fefnicute had refused to put a filling in her painful tooth, because, he said, she was under the weather.
     She said that the word meant a miserable git, a mean, sneaking fellow. It was a Lancashire word she remembered from childhood.