flim-flam (flim flam)
idiom

- deceptive nonsense; deception, fraud.

- talk that is confusing and intended to deceive.

- dishonest behavior meant to take money or property from someone … and foolish or deceptive words

Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, Britannica Dictionary

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ORIGIN

The word "flim-flam" first appeared in English around 1538 as a noun, making its earliest recorded appearance in the mid-16th century. The verb form emerged later, with the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence dating from 1660.

The word is probably of Old Scandinavian origin, akin to the Old Norse flim meaning "mockery" or "lampoon".

"Flim-flam" belongs to an extensive family of reduplicative expressions that emerged in 16th-century England, including "fiddle-faddle, gibble-gabble, harum-scarum, helter-skelter, hocus-pocus, hotch-potch, hurry-scurry, jibber-jabber, prittle-prattle, shilly-shally, tittle-tattle, and topsy-turvy".

Some reduplicative words are quite old: "pell mell, hobnob, helter-skelter" date from the 16th century, "riff-raff" from the 15th century, and "willy-nilly" from the 10th century.

Flim-flam first entered English as a noun meaning "deceptive nonsense" in the second half of the 16th century. The meaning "deception" or "fraud" developed soon after.

Despite being hundreds of years old, flimflam is still going strong and is widely found in current use. Its survival over nearly five centuries speaks to the enduring nature of both linguistic reduplication and deceptive human behaviour.

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THE EIFFEL TOWER SWINDEL

The "Victor Lustig Sells the Eiffel Tower" con from 1925 remains legendary. Posing as a French government official, Lustig invited scrap metal dealers to a confidential meeting at a luxury Paris hotel.

He explained the Eiffel Tower was too expensive to maintain and would be sold for scrap—but the government wanted discretion to avoid public outcry. He collected a massive bribe from the "winning" bidder, then vanished.

The victim was too embarrassed to report it. Lustig was so successful he returned to Paris a month later and sold the Eiffel Tower again to a different dealer.

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SYNONYMS

artifice, bait and switch, balderdash, baloney, bamboozle, bilk, bill of goods, blarney, bosh, bull, bullshit, bunch of malarkey, bunko, bunk, cheat, chicanery, chisel, clip joints, codswallop, con, confidence game (trick), deceive, deception, defraud, diddle, double talk, dupe, empty promise, false front, fast one, fiddle, finagle, fish story, fleecing, fool's gold, FLIM-FLAM, fraud, gammon, gouge, gull, gyp, hocus-pocus, hogwash, hoodwink, hornswoggle, hot air hustle, humbug, hustle, hype, imposture, jape, jiggery-pokery, lead up the garden path, legerdemain, load of old cobblers, malarkey, monkeyshines, mountebankery, mulct, pigeon drop, ploy, ponzi scheme, poppycock, pulling the wool over someone's eyes, put one over, put-on, pyramid scam, quackery, racket, razzle-dazzle, rig, rigged game, rook, ruse, scam, sell a pup, sham, sharpie, shell game, shuck, shortchange, skin, sleight, smoke and mirrors, snake oil, snow, snow job, song and dance, spoof, sting, string along, sucker punch, swindle, take, taking for a ride, tall tale, three-card monte,tosh, trick, trickery, tripe, twaddle, wangle, welsh, whopper

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SMUGGLE
 OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“My favourite FLIM-FLAM story concerns the selling of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.”

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P L E A S E   S U P P O R T   O W A D