My buddy Charles has been using the British expression faff, in private emails and even in a Liminality post or two because it's his new favorite word* (well, since 2022), so here's another esoteric word for you, courtesy of Dictionary.com: fard—(n.) cosmetics; (v.) to apply cosmetics. It's apparently from older French. Nowadays, when a woman makes herself up, the French say Elle se maquille, from se maquiller ("seuh mah-kee-yey"), to make oneself up. Makeup is called le maquillage ("leuh mah-kee-YAHZH").
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*Charles has used it as both a noun and a verb, but both Dictionary.com and Merriam Webster list it as only a verb. Are the dictionaries missing something?
3 comments:
I've used it for a lot longer than that, I think--I've just let it creep into my writing in recent years.
As for whether the dictionaries are missing something, the answer is yes.
And it's not really that esoteric a word. I just think it's uncommon in the US. I am doing my best to change that. Come on, you know you want to use it.
(Fun fact: I gave up on my dream of being a circus clown because I've always found farding to be too much of a faff.)
Faff isndefinitrly used as both a very and a noun in the UK, although in verb form it is faff about or faff around.
"Faff," the noun, sounds like a blander version of the US English noun "bitch."
It's a bit of a faff to hit the bank at this hour.
It's a bit of a bitch to hit the bank at this hour.
As a verb, "faff" sounds like a mild version of "fuck."
Faff around and find out.
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