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 October 20, Michael M. Thomas, “Tough Times for the Fi-Fi Novel”, in The New York Times:

References

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