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.
Whilom shares an ancestor with the word while. Both trace back to the Old English word hwil, meaning time or while.. In Old English hwilum was an adverb meaning at times.. This use passed into Middle English (with a variety of spellings, one of which was whilom), and in the 12th century the word acquired the meaning formerly.. The adverb's usage dwindled toward the end of the 19th century, and it has since been labeled archaic.