furphy means A surname.
furphy is pronounced /ˈfɜːfiː/.
Why “furphy” is a great word
A rumour, particularly one that is improbable or demonstrably false, circulated earnestly as fact. The term is drawn from the surname Furphy, that of the Australian firm whose water carts became the natural hubs for news—and more often, speculation—among soldiers in the trenches of the First World War. Unlike "scuttlebutt" (which is simply the idle chatter of a group) or "canard" (a deliberately fabricated falsehood), a furphy is a falsehood born of communal anxiety, passed hand to hand until it acquires the patina of truth. It is the whisper that a battalion is to be sent to a quiet sector just as the enemy begins a barrage, the solemn report that fresh eggs have been seen at headquarters, or the unshakeable belief that the war will end by Christmas—not a malicious lie, but a collective sigh given narrative form, a story told to make the unbearable seem temporary.
Etymology
From Furphy (a surname), from the firm of J[ohn] Furphy and Sons. 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.
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, or shared between soldiers visiting latrines where such Furphy carts would often be seen.
noun
- An erroneous or improbable story; also, a rumour.e.g.“I know wot I wus born fer now, an' soljerin's me game, / That's no furphy; but I never guessed it once; […]”
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