Piffy

Posted by Gary Martin on January 13, 2006

In Reply to: Piffy posted by Tony on January 13, 2006

: Did the explanation of the word Piffy become clear? My dad use to tell me "not to stand there like Piffy" and not to "shape wooden"!!

No, the search for piffy goes on. It's most usually used in the Northern English phrase 'like a piffy on a rock bun'. That's still used, notably in Lancashire, and is a favourite with the writers of Coronation Street. In that context it means conspicuous but ignored. The allusion there is to something static and obvious like a cherry or currant on top of a cake (rock buns are cakes).

Who or what piffy is seems to be lost, although it has become a general-purpose slang term meaning pretty much anything the speaker wants, like thingy or whatsit.