Frivolity is a type of clownishness or silliness. Frivolity is the opposite of getting down to business in a serious way. If people are running around a classroom, throwing things, and laughing, the teacher might say, Why all the frivolity?. This is a word for clowning or horsing around â not being serious.
The definition of whilom is something former, or that once was. 1  An example of something whilom is a friend that you were close to in middle school. 2  An example of something whilom is a job that you once had.
It literally means Long may your chimney smoke, but it actually means I wish you a long life and prosperity. A lum is a a chimney, reek is smoke. The idea that lies behind the expression is that a house with a smoking chimney is one which is inhabited. Lum: I. n. 1. A chimney, the smoke-vent or flue of a fire-place, a chimney-stack (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Also in n.Eng. dial. Reek: II. v. 1. intr., of a chimney: (a) to emit smoke, esp. as a sign that a dwelling is inhabited. Phrs. a reeking lum, an inhabited house. Cf. 4. Also in Eng. dial.; lang may your lum reek, an expression of good wishes for one's prosperity.