[f. FOP sb. and v. + -ERY; cf. Ger. fopperei, Du. fopperij, hoaxing.]
† 1. Foolishness, imbecility, stupidity, folly. Obs.
1592. Greene, Disput., 25. Of pleasant disposition he was, and could gawll out many quaint & ribadrous Iigges & songs, and so was fauoured by the foolish sect for his foppery.
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, Preface. You may visit their Temples such as they are, and see the Foppery of their Priests Religious Opinions and Practices both in their Worship and Festivals.
1711. E. Ward, Vulg. Brit., II. 136.
| Tho’ they’re fix’d Enemies to Pop’ry, | |
| As well as to Fanatick Fop’ry. |
† b. A foolish action, practice, idea, statement, etc.; a folly, an absurdity; concr. something foolishly esteemed or venerated. Obs.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, I. Pref. 7. The popes false Christ with hys myters and mastryes, wyth his fannoms and fopperyes.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 375. He foresook his former studying of the School Doctors, and other such fopperies, and became a true scholar of the true divinity.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. xxiii. (1632), 139. Holding it a foppery to write of those, of whose fauour or wrath the Inditers stood in hope or feare.
1718. Rowe, trans. Lucan, Notes, 47. Thank God, the Foppery of Pilgrimages is out of Fashion in England; or at lest [sic] those who are weak enough to travel from one Country to another in search of holiness, are wise enough not to own it amongst us.
1758. Jortin, Erasm., I. 170/1. When they were joint spectators of some superstitious reliques of Thomas à Becket, Colet was out of patience to see those silly fopperies; whereas Erasmus was more easy, waiting till a proper time should come of reforming such abuses.
2. The behavior or manner characteristic of a fop; silly affectation of elegance; coxcombry, dandyism; an instance of this.
1697. J. Potter, Antiq. Greece, I. xxvi. (1715), 181. Soldiers shall not observe the Punctilios of Spruceness and Foppery, in their Hair, &c.
1752. Hume, Ess. & Treat. (1777), I. 135. Modern politeness, wich is naturally so ornamental, runs often into affectation and foppery, disguise and insincerity.
1808. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1867), I. 106. The massacre was principally owing to an adroit use made by the sons of Tippoo, and the high Mussulmen living in the fortress, of the abominable military foppery of our own people.
1822. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Detached Th. on Bks. A Shakespeare, or a Milton (unless the first editions), it were mere foppery to trick out in gay apparel.
1851. Helps, Comp. Solit., vi. (1874), 101–2. It is past melancholy, and verges on despair, to reflect upon what is going on amongst ministers of religion, who are often but too intent upon the fopperies of religion to have heart and time for the substantial work entrusted to them—immersed in heart-breaking trash from which no sect is free; for here are fopperies of discipline, there fopperies of doctrine (still more dangerous as it seems to me).
b. concr. in pl. or collect. sing. Foppish finery.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 45, 21 April, ¶ 1. For the Prevention of these great Evils, I could heartily wish that there was an Act of Parliament for Prohibiting the Importation of French Fopperies.
a. 1763. Shenstone, Progr. Taste, I. 116.
| And, as my satire bursts amain, | |
| See, feather’d foppery strew the plain. |
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, x. His riding-gear, though free from such fopperies as were then in vogue, was handsome and well-chosen.
