Obs. [echoic.]
1. intr. To play (on a guitar) with the fingers. Cf. STRUM, THRUM vbs.
1607. Dekker & Webster, Westw. Hoe, V. Wks. 1873, II. 349. Follow me, and fum as you goe.
1672. Dryden, Assignation, II. iii. He fums on the Guittar.
2. trans. ? To thump, beat. (The quot. is negro-Eng.; but cf. FUM-FUM b.)
1790. J. B. Moreton, W. Indies, 154. Then missess fum me wid long switch … Me fum’d when me no … me fum’d too if me do it.
So with reduplication Fum-fum, (a) expressing the sound of a stringed instrument; (b) a thumping or beating.
1656. Earl Monm., Advt. fr. Parnass., 320. The ignorant Consort of trivial Fidlers, who play fum fum in the meanest Assemblies.
1885. Blackw. Mag., Oct., 522/2. He got fum-fum for purloining again.
