naff

adjective

ˈnaf

British, informal

: lacking in style or good taste : vulgar and unfashionable

I was going to get a pair of leather jeans as well, but it was too expensive and anyway, leather pants look naff, as I discovered later.

Melvin Burgess, Smack, 1996

… the terrifying door girl Scarlett sat guard and held up a hand mirror to anyone she considered too naff to enter, with the withering line "Would you let yourself in?"

Hamish Bowles, Vogue, November 2012

Word History

Etymology

perhaps borrowed from Polari (English argot used by theatrical and circus performers and in certain gay subcultures, derived in part from Italian); ulterior origin uncertain

Note: A summary of hypotheses on the origin of naff can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, on-line third edition (this entry updated June, 2003). The putative Polari phrase naff omi "a dreary man," unattributed in the Oxford etymology, is apparently from a communication by the comic actor Kenneth Williams, in 1980, to Paul Beale, the editor of Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 8th edition, 1984 (see p. 775).

First Known Use

1966, in the meaning defined above

单词	naff
释义	naff adjective ˈnaf British, informal : lacking in style or good taste : vulgar and unfashionable I was going to get a pair of leather jeans as well, but it was too expensive and anyway, leather pants look naff, as I discovered later. Melvin Burgess, Smack, 1996 … the terrifying door girl Scarlett sat guard and held up a hand mirror to anyone she considered too naff to enter, with the withering line "Would you let yourself in?" Hamish Bowles, Vogue, November 2012 Word History Etymology perhaps borrowed from Polari (English argot used by theatrical and circus performers and in certain gay subcultures, derived in part from Italian); ulterior origin uncertain Note: A summary of hypotheses on the origin of naff can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, on-line third edition (this entry updated June, 2003). The putative Polari phrase naff omi "a dreary man," unattributed in the Oxford etymology, is apparently from a communication by the comic actor Kenneth Williams, in 1980, to Paul Beale, the editor of Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 8th edition, 1984 (see p. 775). First Known Use 1966, in the meaning defined above
随便看	from point a to point b from rags to riches from scratch from side to side from soup to nuts from start to finish from stem to stern from strength to strength from that day forth from that day forth/forward from that day forward from that point on from the bottom of one's heart from the cradle to the grave from the depths of someone's being from the depths of someone's heart from the depths of someone's soul from the field from the first from the floor from the four corners of the earth from the get-go from the ground up from the heart from the horse's mouth