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[ adjective ] not serious in content or attitude or behavior
Examples "a frivolous novel" "a frivolous remark" "a frivolous young woman" Used in print (Brand Blanshard, "The Emotive Theory," Robert...)The suggestion that in saying something evil had occurred we were after_all making no mistake , because we had never meant anyhow to say anything about the past suffering , seems to me merely frivolous . (J. H. Hexter, "Thomas More: On the Margins...)It also overlooks the fact that in a rational lexicon , and quite clearly in More 's lexicon , the opposite of serious is not gay but frivolous , and the opposite of gay is not serious but solemn . That a writer who is gay cannot be serious is a common professional illusion , sedulously fostered by all_too many academics who mistakenly believe that their frivolous efforts should be taken seriously because they are expressed with that dreary solemnity which is the only mode of expression their authors are capable of . Related terms serious airheaded airheaded flippant idle light trivial flighty superficial seriousness |
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