The "fribler" (and bonus: "Not in dignified use")

Fri Jul 9 14:14:09 UTC 2010

I saw the "fribble"s cited by Mark, but thought that

>So, a man who frivols with women's hearts, who wastes their love negligently.

was at the least a more specific sense for
"fribble" than the "2. intr. *In early use*, to
act aimlessly or feebly, to busy oneself to no
purpose; to ‘fiddle’", and perhaps different
enough to be new.  (1710 for "fribler"seems to be
early enough use not to be the same as the early
sense of "fribble".  And "frivol" as Mark uses it
above is dated by the OED only from 1866.)
-----
Related to Garrick's "Fribleriad" (see, below,
the 1779 citation from The Gentleman's
Magazine)  there are these  two GB snippets (if
I'm interpreting the missing tops of letters
correctly!) from Studies in the eighteenth century; II.:
Papers presented at the second David Nichol Smith
Memorial Seminar, Canberra,1970 [year of
conference; actually published 1973], both from page 362 and in this order:

"A 'fribler' [sic] had been defined by Richard
Steele in Spectator No. 288 as [rest the same as the 1712 quote I gave].
...
"[? There] is a character named Fribble in
Garrick's play Miss in her Teens. According to
Garrick's friend Arthur Murphy, he represents a
phenomenon of the times, 'the pretty gentlemen,
who chose to unsex themselves, and make a display
of delicacy that exceeded ..."

This seems to be an adoption by Garrick of a word
that he was already familiar with, and with the
same sense as the 1710, 1712, and 1742 quotations.

"Miss in Her Teens" can be seen GB full view (ed.
New York: 1824).  It must have been quite popular
-- the ESTC lists 39 editions, from 1747 -- so at
least in the spelling "fribble" the character
type must have been known by many.  Garrick
himself played Fribble in 1747.  See page 15 for
the heroine's description of Fribble.
-----
Perhaps "fribble" or/and "frivol" (or even
"trifle") is/are what suggested -- by similarity
of sound? -- to someone (apparently not Steele!)
the stem "frible".  But even "frivol, a. and n.",
which is early enough, seems more general,
although it does allow (A.1) "fickle".
-----
As for pronunciation, I favor rhyming with the
related "trifler", but I can't imagine it being
pronounced other than to rhyme with the fertile,
fuzzy creatures from Star Trek.  (Garrick's
spelling of "Fribble" for his character seems to
support the latter pronunciation.)
-----
In passing, in addition to "vulgar" and
"considered offensive" Jesse and Jon may have
overlooked "Not in dignified use" -- as applied to "frivol v.2."
-----
Joel

At 7/8/2010 10:47 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>Sounds a bit familiar.
>
>Cf "fribble", OED:
>  2. intr. In early use, to act aimlessly or feebly, to busy oneself to
>no purpose; to ‘fiddle’. Now (exc. dial.) only in strongly
>contemptuous sense: To behave frivolously, trifle.     b. trans. to
>fribble away: to throw away or part with lightly, fool away. to
>fribble out (nonce-use): to portray with purposeless minuteness.
>
>
>Freedictionary:
>frib·ble
>v. frib·bled, frib·bling, frib·bles
>v.tr.
>To waste (time, for example); fritter (something) away.
>v.intr.
>To waste time; trifle.
>n.
>1. A frivolity; a trifle.
>2. A frivolous person.
>[Origin unknown.]
>fribbler n.
>________________________________
>fribble [ËˆfrÉªbÉ™l]
>vb
>1. (tr) to fritter away; waste
>2. (intr) to act frivolously; trifle
>n
>a wasteful or frivolous person or action
>adj
>frivolous; trifling
>[of unknown origin]
>fribbler  n
>
>===========
>
>So, a man who frivols with women's hearts, who wastes their love negligently.
>
>m a m
>
>On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:11 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> >
> > Not in the OED, and new to me.  My first encounter was in Thomas A.
> > Forster's _Sex and the Eighteenth-Century Man_ (2006), p. 115.
> > -----
> >
> > 1710.  [Charles Johnson.]  The Force of Friendship. A Tragedy. ... To
> > which is Added, A Farce call'd Love in a Chest.  London: Printed for
> > Egbert Sanger, 1710.  p. 49.  [The quotation is from "Love in a
> > Chest".]  [ECCO]
> >
> > Seb.  What injury has this Lady done you Sir, to merit your impudent
> > Addresses, thou Impotent Fribler?
> >
> > [Sebastian is the young man in love with Theresa, and vice versa; he
> > is speaking to Fascinetti, "an old [and superannuated] Fellow in Love
> > with Theresa".]
> > -----
> >
> > 1712 Jan. 30:  The Spectator, no. 288.  [GB snippet, no page; but
> > apparently II. 360 (see Gordon Williams book, below)]
> >
> > They whom my Correspondent calls Male Coquets, shall hereafter be
> > called Friblers.[1] A Fribler is one who professes Rapture and
> > Admiration for the Woman to whom he addresses, and dreads nothing so
> > much as her Consent. His Heart can flutter by the Force of
> > Imagination, but cannot fix from the Force of Judgement.
> > -----
> >
> > 1742.  [? attributed to Thomas Carte.]  The Blatant-Beast. A
> > Poem.  London: Printed for J Robinson, 1742.  p. 9.  [ECCO.]
> >
> > With Malice swoll'n, Pride, Envy, Avarice,
> > Ingratitude attends this Train to Vice.
> > Yet one remains untold; with Lust endu'd,
> > Behold the Fribler lab'ring to be lewd.
> > -----
> >
> > 1779 May:  The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, vol.
> > 49, p. 227.  [GB full view]
> >
> > Those, however, who are unacquainted with either persons or facts
> > will receive pleasure in reading Mr. Garrick's admirable satire
> > published on this occasion, intituled The Fribleriad,* a Poem, which
> > had the honour of being highly commended by Churchill, who has also
> > given a very server correction to the same person.
> >
> > * This piece is printed, with other performances of wit and humor, in
> > The Repository, A Collection of Fugitive Pieces published by Dilly,
> > 1777; vol. II. p. 27 ...
> >
> > [Apparently also in 1779:  The Annual Register, or a View of the
> > History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1779 [in "A New
> > Edition", 1796], vol. 22, p. 53.  [GB full view.]
> > -----
> >
> > Gordon Williams, A dictionary of sexual language and imagery in
> > Shakespearean and (1994), claims:
> >
> > Johnson, Love in a Chest (1710) Ii has the variant 'thou Impotent
> > Fribler', a word which Steele, Spectator 288 (30 Jan. 1712; II. 360)
> > professes to coin ...
> > -----
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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