bring the frowcous

before douglas adams wrote his dictionary of made up words, before anthony burgess invented his nadsat lexicon, a different author named burgess came up with his own dictionary of invented words.

in 1914, our man gelett burgess published burgess unabridged: a new dictionary of words that you have always needed as a way to promote his neologisms. it is from this stupendous volume that we get this week’s f-words [spoilers: none of his invented f-words seem to have enjoyed the same staying power as blurb and bromide (but we can change that!)]

• Fidgeltick · 1. Any food requiring painstaking and ill requited effort. 2. A taciturn person from whom it is hard to get information
• Flooijab · To make a sarcastic comment in a feminine manner
• Frime · One who always does the right thing at the right time
• Frowk · An action considered to be about half wrong
• Frowcous · Nice but naughty, or considered so; piquantly provocative
• Fud · In a state of déshabille or confusion

burgess bonus: burgess proceeds—in a way that only burgess can—to illustrate his words with both fanciful line drawings and clever quatrains. here is his flooijab poem:

You think they talk of men and mice,
Of operas and cabs;
Ah no! Beneath those phrases nice,
They’re shooting flooijabs.

No man can know—but women may
Interpret women’s smiles—
It’s what they mean—not what they say,
That stings in women’s wiles.