fingle-fangle
[reduplication of fangle. Cf. fiddle-faddle.]
A trifle; something whimsical or fantastic. Also attrib.
| a 1652 Brome Covent Garden i. 13 This comes of your new fingle-fangle fashion. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. iii. 221 To wrangle, About the slightest fingle fangle. 1710 Brit. Apollo III. No. 61. 3/1 A Woman..I Love; A kind of Female Fingle, Fangle. 1900 Daily News 26 Nov. 4/1 A lot of fingle-fangle, like piano-playing. 1963 Brewer's Dict. Phr. & Fable 359/2 Fingle-fangle..is not heard nowadays, except as an archaism. |
Hence ˈfingle-fangled ppl. a.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶11 The upstart fingle-fangl'd Paracelsian. |