flummery

flummery
    n 1: a bland custard or pudding especially of oatmeal
    2: meaningless ceremonies and flattery [syn: {mummery},
       {flummery}]
    

Flummery \Flum"mer*y\, n. [W. llumru, or llumruwd, a kind of
   food made of oatmeal steeped in water until it has turned
   sour, fr. llumrig harsh, raw, crude, fr. llum sharp, severe.]
   1. A light kind of food, formerly made of flour or meal; a
      sort of pap.
      [1913 Webster]

            Milk and flummery are very fit for children.
                                                  --Locke.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Something insipid, or not worth having; empty compliment;
      trash; unsubstantial talk of writing.
      [1913 Webster]

            The flummery of modern criticism.     --J. Morley.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Sowens \Sow"ens\ (? or ?), n. pl. [Scottish; cf. AS. se['a]w
   juice, glue, paste.]
   A nutritious article of food, much used in Scotland, made
   from the husk of the oat by a process not unlike that by
   which common starch is made; -- called {flummery} in England.
   [Written also {sowans}, and {sowins}.]
   [1913 Webster]
    

52 Moby Thesaurus words for "flummery":
      absurdity, amphigory, babble, babblement, balderdash,
      bibble-babble, blabber, blather, bombast, claptrap, double-talk,
      drivel, drool, fiddle-faddle, fiddledeedee, folderol, fudge,
      fustian, gabble, galimatias, gammon, gibber, gibberish,
      gibble-gabble, gobbledygook, hocus-pocus, humbug, jabber, jargon,
      mumbo jumbo, narrishkeit, niaiserie, nonsense, pack of nonsense,
      palaver, prate, prattle, rant, rigamarole, rigmarole, rodomontade,
      rubbish, skimble-skamble, stuff and nonsense, stultiloquence,
      trash, trumpery, twaddle, twattle, twiddle-twaddle, vaporing,
      waffling