TURVEYDROPIAN

PRONUNCIATION: (tuhr-vee-DROH-pee-uhn)

MEANING: adjective: Overly concerned with one’s appearance, demeanor, etc.

ETYMOLOGY: After Mr. Turveydrop, a character overly concerned with deportment, in Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, 1852. Earliest documented use: 1876.

NOTES: Mr. Turveydrop is a dance studio owner. He’s a conceited humbug, consumed with his deportment. As Dickens describes him:
He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar.

Turveydrop laments: England -- alas, my country! -- has degenerated very much, and is degenerating every day. She has not many gentlemen left.
___________________________

SURVEYDROPIAN - like a poll that deliberately leaves out important variables

TURVEYEDROPIAN - like the treatment for keratoconjunctivitis sicca marketed by the TURV company

CURVEYDROPIAN - falling when released, but somehow not straight down