A member of one of the “First Families of Virginia.” So many persons claimed to be F.F.V.’s, that the initials came to be used by way of jest.
1847. A Virginia scion insisted that they [F. F. V.] were an abbreviation he had seen used in the navy to represent ‘First Family in Virginia.’—Knick. Mag., xxix. 495 (June).
1850. Major Smith deserves the meed, I believe, for being the first one of the race to acknowledge that he was not an F. F.; which confession, showing his integrity of character, proved to me that he really was one of the very first of the land.—H. C. Lewis (‘Madison Tensas’), ‘Odd Leaves,’ p. 178 (Phila.).
1850. They were “as mute as a mouse in a cheese”; yes, sir, as a first family Virginia mouse in an English cheese.—Mr. Stanly of N.C., House of Repr., March 6: Cong. Globe, p. 337, App.
1850. If an advocate of the resolution of ’99, one of the “double F.V.’s,” were to get up, &c.—The same, March 7: id., p. 487.
1853. I’ll jest give two of the fattest shoats in all Illinois, ef you’ll only find me a feller that belongs to one of the second Virginia families.—Oregonian, March 12.
1853. “Oh!” said I, “Captain Tyler is a Virginian; you must see him, and let him know that you are one of the F. F. V.’s, and he will save you.” “Well, sir,” replied Thompson, raising himself upon his arm, in the bed, “it’s astonishing what regard the first families of Virginia have for one another.”—F. W. Thomas, ‘Sketches,’ p. 296 (Phila.).
1857. Mr. Floyd, as every body knows, is an F. F. V., and the soul of honor accordingly; if he quarrels with any one, he will conduct the quarrel like a gentleman, and not like a drab.—Harper’s Weekly, i. p. 229/2 (April 11).
1857. None but the naval representatives of the F.F.V.’s have any right or inheritance [in the naval station at Norfolk, Va.].—Knick. Mag., l. 581 (Dec.).
1861. They must do better down in Virginia than they have done, or F.F.V., instead of standing for “First Families of Virginia,” will get to mean the “Fast Flying Virginians.”—Oregon Argus, Aug. 10.
1861.
| She ’s an F. F., the tallest kind, an’ prouder ’n the Gran’ Turk, | |
| An never hed a relative thet done a stroke o’ work. | |
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ 2nd Series, No. 1. |
1862. Mason wuz F. F. V., though a cheap card to win on.—The same, No. 4.
1862. The Cleveland Plain Dealer gives the latest definition of the much noted initials, “F.F.V.” It is “Fortify, Fizzle, ’Vacuate.”—Rocky Mountain News, Denver, April 26.
1863. The oldest families in the State—the true F.F.V.’s—derived their chief revenue from their annual sales of “black stock,” which they bred for the market just as a Kentuckian bred his horses and hogs.—O. J. Victor, ‘The History … of the Southern Rebellion,’ i. 234 n.
1870. The man who, in the Old World, would be dubbed a viscount or a baron was known in the Old Dominion as an F. F. V., that is, he belonged to one of the First Families in Virginia.—Rae, ‘Westward by Rail,’ p. 311 (Lond.).
