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naff2
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naff2

naff (năf) verb, intransitive

naffed, naffing, naffs

Chiefly British.

To fool around or go about: "naffing about in a tutu" (Suzanne Lowry).

phrasal verb.

naff off

Used in the imperative as a signal of angry dismissal.

 

[Origin unknown.]

Word History: In the dual tradition of looking to one's betters for models of how to use language and American obeisance to British usage, let us look at two British words spelled naff. One is an adjective, meaning "clichéd, unstylish" (first recorded in 1969), that may be derived from dialectal words such as naffhead,"simpleton," or niffy-naffy,"stupid." The other naff is a verb, usually used in the imperative in combination with off (first recorded in 1959). This is the delicate injunction that members of the royal family such as Princess Anne have used in requesting members of the press to beat it. The origin of naff is unknown, but it has been suggested that naff may be related to an older English slang term naf, meaning "the female sexual organ."Naf has been derived from a backward spelling of fan, from fanny.