I'm reading a collection of sci-fi short stories from 1957, and I come across a new word - fripoons - in a story from CS Lewis called "The Shoddy Lands". Google has no record of it, so I thought I should document it here in context:
The male faces were not the sort I cared about: a flashy-looking crew - gigolos, fripoons.Anyone got OED access to look it up?
4 comments:
Possibly far too late to be useful, but I'd say it's a made-up amalgamation of frippery and buffoon (i.e. idiots who like overly fancy clothing).
A portmanteau? Interesting. It certainly fits the context.
There are a fair few google hits for fripoon now, but they seem to mostly relate to someone on the warez scene - which is quite fitting as 'fripon' is French for rascal or rogue.
Agree with marthiemoo on the amalgamation. Not so keen on the miss-typed title of the story. It's The Shoddy Lands, not Lawns... from The Best From Fantasy And Science Fiction sixth series, published in 1957 by Doubleday and edited by Anthony Boucher.
I love this tome. It smells amazing.
A belated thanks,Anonymous - even Christ stumbled and all that. I've corrected the name. The shoddy story itself is at http://www.ele.uri.edu/faculty/vetter/Other-stuff/The-Shoddy-Lands.pdf
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