- Today's Word
Fandangle
[FAN-dang-guhl]
Definition
- (noun) An ornate or showy decoration, trinket, or unnecessary embellishment. It can also refer to a complicated or elaborate process or activity, often one that is seen as unnecessarily complex or frivolous.
Example
The new smartphone came with so many fandangles and features that most users found it overwhelming and struggled to perform even basic tasks.
Fun Fact
The word “fandangle” is believed to have originated in the mid-19th century in American English. Its exact etymology is unclear, but it’s thought to be a playful combination of “fandango” (a lively Spanish dance) and “dangle” (to hang loosely). The term reflects the idea of something showy or decorative that hangs or is attached to something else. Over time, it has come to describe any unnecessary or overly complicated addition to an object or process.
(adjective) Lacking substance, interest, or mature thought; naive and simplistic in a way that reveals inexperience.
The critic dismissed the debut novel as jejune — competently written, technically adequate, and utterly devoid of anything worth remembering.
Jejune derives from the Latin jejunus, meaning “fasting” or “empty” — literally describing a stomach that has not been fed. The same root gives us jejunum, the section of the small intestine named for its tendency to be found empty after death. It entered English in the 17th century carrying its literal sense of emptiness before acquiring its figurative meaning of something intellectually or creatively hollow — content that has the form of nourishment without any of the substance.