The story
Ultimately a sound-symbolic reduplication, 1538 as noun, 1660 as verb. Perhaps from a dialectal word or North Germanic/Scandinavian; compare Old Norse flim (“lampoon, mockery”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
flim-flam
Today it means: Misinformation; bunkum; false information presented as true. Full definition →