furphy

See also: Furphy

English

WOTD – 26 January 2026

Etymology

From Furphy (a surname), from the firm of J[ohn] Furphy and Sons.[1] An often-repeated etymology is that during World War I (1914–1918), Australian soldiers in Europe and the Middle East often stood around water carts manufactured by the firm and emblazoned with its name to talk and exchange news and rumours.[2][3]

Alternatively, it has been suggested that the word derives from news and rumours spread by soldiers operating Furphy carts collecting garbage and human waste in the Broadmeadows Camp in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1914,[4] or shared between soldiers visiting latrines where such Furphy carts would often be seen.[5]

Pronunciation

Noun

furphy (plural furphies)

  1. (Australia, slang) An erroneous or improbable story; also, a rumour.
    Synonym: scuttlebutt
    Coordinate terms: Banbury story of a cock and a bull, cock-and-bull story, fish story, tall story, tall tale, traveller's tale
    • 1916, C[larence] J[ames] Dennis, “The Game”, in The Moods of Ginger Mick, Sydney, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson, →OCLC, page 110:
      I know wot I wus born fer now, an' soljerin's me game, / That's no furphy; but I never guessed it once; […]
    • 1960 September, John Wyndham [pseudonym; John Wyndham Harris], chapter XII, in Trouble with Lichen, London: Michael Joseph, published October 1960, →OCLC, page 153:
      ‘Well, old boy, some other Top Persons have high-stepping wives who go to Nefertiti, and the furphy round the House is that they believe in the thing so solidly that they’ve convinced their husbands, and that’s what’s really at the back of it.’ / 'Now look, you two, sober up a minute. This is serious. I think Bill’s furphy’s right. […]’
    • 1996, Julian M. Alston, Philip G. Pardey, “Current Policy in a Contemporary Context”, in Making Science Pay: The Economics of Agricultural R&D Policy (AEI Studies in Agricultural Policy), Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, →ISBN, page 313:
      A number of the furphies and fads in relation to public-sector agricultural R&D relate to attempts to increase demand for farm products in various ways.
    • 1998, Peter Pinney, Signaller Johnston’s Secret War: New Guinea 1943–1945, St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, →ISBN, page 156:
      He's off his lolly. It's just bloody Buka talk. Another of their half-arsed furfies. And he knows it!
    • 2005, Mark Latham, “2004 Pre-election”, in The Latham Diaries, Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, →ISBN, page 328:
      [Tim] Gartrell and [John] Faulkner also released Maurie Daly's letter, which was sent to us on Monday, to the media, putting the Liverpool furphies to rest.

Alternative forms

Translations

erroneous or improbable story

See also

References

  1. ^ “furphy, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2024.
  2. ^ “The Famous Furphy Water Cart”, in Furphy: J. Furphy & Sons‎[1], 2012, archived from the original on 25 May 2012.
  3. ^ Graham Seal (1999), The Lingo: Listening to Australian English, Sydney, N.S.W.: University of New South Wales Press, →ISBN, page 59.
  4. ^ Herbert George Hartnett (2009), “Christmas 1917 at Kemmel”, in Chris Bryett, editor, Over the Top: A Digger’s Story of the Western Front, EasyRead large bold print edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Read How You Want, published 2010, →ISBN, pages 242–243.
  5. ^ Compare “furphy, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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