“Here our parents thought we were frivoling away our lives.”
…The hell? What was Unca Cece on?
Musta gotten that one through the ol’ Ed-itor…
It’s in my dictionary, as an informal back-formation from “frivolous”.
frivol vb Informal 1: (intr) to behave frivolously; trifle. 2: (tr; often followed by away) to waste on frivolous pursuits
My dictionary, by the way, being Collins English Dictionary, 21st Century Edition.
I must admit, I thought it was a Cecil invention, but it’s still obvious what he meant.
I don’t mind new words, but it does seem weird when there are perflectly clear, simple words that mean the exactly same thing:
Main Entry: fritter
Function: verb
Etymology: fritter, noun (fragment, shred)
Date: 1728
transitive senses
1 : to spend or waste bit by bit, on trifles, or without commensurate return – usually used with away
New words? So you think Cecil might have seen What words has Cecil Adams coined?? But no. The OED has this:
It does say
which may be precisely why Cecil used in that column.
I came in here to start a thread with exactly the same title as this one.
I am amused by the otiosity of the discussion.
Great word, Arnold. Did you know it started out life as ociositee as cited in Shakespeare and earlier. It suddenly appeared in the 1800’s as otiosity as used by Thackeray and others.
I just had some spare time on my hands and thought I would share that. 
Really, samclem? I would have guessed that it came from Latin “otium”, meaning “leisure”. As another interesting tidbit, “negotium”, meaning business or negotiations, is literally “not leisure”.
And Oxymoron, “fritter” isn’t the word we want to use here. Unless, of course, the hashish is mixed into a sweet batter and griddled. Which, I suppose, would also directly address the munchies ;).
Now there’s a word you don’t hear very often!