Chapter Fly-boy to Fond of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

(Abu' Lhoem).
   Folly. A fantastic or foolishly extravagant country seat, built for amusement or vainglory. (French, folie.)

"We have in this country a word (namely, Folly) which has a technical appropriation to the case of fantastic buildings." - De Quincey: Essays on the Poets (Keats, p. 90).

   Fisher's Folly. A large and beautiful house in Bishopsgate, with pleasure-gardens, bowling-green, and hot-houses, built by Jasper Fisher, one of the six clerks of Chancery and a Justice of the Peace. Queen Elizabeth lodged there.

"Kirby's castle, and Fisher's folly,
Spinola's pleasure, and Megse's glory."
Stowe: Surrey.

Fond A foolish, fond parent. Here fond does not mean affectionate, but silly. Chaucer uses the word fonne for a simpleton, and the Scotch fou is to play the fool. Shakespeare has "fond desire," "fond love," "fond shekels of gold," "fond wretch," "fond madwoman," etc. "Fondling" means an idiot, or one fond.

"See how simple and how fond I am."
Shakespeare: Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2.

"Fonder than ignorance."
Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, i. 1.