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fop

UK/fɒp/US/fɑp/
nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechneutraldated · an editor’s judgement

Other forms: fops

A fop is a man far too devoted to his clothes and his mirror. Ruffles, and a great deal of time in front of the glass.

The word belongs to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Restoration comedy made the fop a standing character and audiences knew exactly what to expect from him. It is dated now and survives mainly in historical writing and in deliberate jokes. Dandy is the near synonym and is slightly more admiring. The adjective foppish describes the manner as well as the wardrobe.

Definitions of fop

  1. 1nounfopA man excessively concerned with his clothes and appearance.C2

    “The play opens with a fop admiring himself in a glass.”

Also accepted in games: dandy

Where it comes from

A fop was first a fool. Middle English foppe meant a fool, origin unknown, perhaps related to German foppen, to jeer; the vanity was added later.

  1. Middle English

    foppe

  2. English, today

    fop

Built from

  • fobbe · Middle English — fop, fool

From Middle English foppe, fobbe (“fop, fool”), but its origin is unknown. Apparently akin to German German foppen (“to jeer”), also of unclear origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 34 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

fop in the wild

  • Despite the subtitle, the fop Sir Fopling is only one of several minor characters and the rake Dorimant the protagonist.

    The Man of Mode

  • The part was first played by Thomas Betterton and Sir Fopling, the flamboyant fop of the hour, by William Smith.

    The Man of Mode

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.