Nonsense. Originally, in 1833, 'the stuff they feed fools on' — a word for what fools eat before it became a word for what they say.
What it really means
Flapdoodle means nonsense — but it began as a menu.
The first recorded use, in 1833, is in the naval novelist Captain Frederick Marryat, and he defines it as the stuff they feed fools on. Halliwell's dictionary, a few years later, records it as West Country speech with almost the same wording: the stuff fools are said to be nourished on.
So the word started life as a joke about diet. Fools, the idea goes, are fed on something, and that something is flapdoodle. From there it is one short step to the modern meaning: the nonsense people swallow, and repeat.
The word itself was built to sound ridiculous, and that was the point. Etymonline calls it probably an arbitrary formation, perhaps nodding to flap, a blow, and certainly to doodle, which from the 1620s meant a fool or simpleton. The same doodle turns up in fopdoodle, further down this list.
It is a good word to have because it names the stuff rather than the person. You can call an argument flapdoodle without calling the arguer a fool — though the word's own history suggests the two tend to arrive together.
Where it comes from
Etymonline calls it 'probably an arbitrary formation from elements meant to sound ridiculous'.
Myths & misconceptions
Flapdoodle has always simply meant nonsense.
Its first recorded sense is food: 'the stuff they feed fools on'. Nonsense is the figurative meaning — what fools are fed, and so what they believe.
How it connects
- Fopdoodleshares the 'doodle' — an old word for a fool.
Questions people ask
- What does flapdoodle mean?
- Nonsense or foolish talk. Its first recorded meaning, in 1833, was 'the stuff they feed fools on'.
- Who first used flapdoodle?
- The earliest recorded use is in the novelist Captain Frederick Marryat, in 1833.