What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Arty-farty’?
This UK term refers to the sort of artistic work or interest that the Bonzo Dog Band’s Vivian Stanshall called “Art with a capital F”. It began to be used in the 1960s, whilst the variant preferred in the USA, ‘artsy-fartsy’, is recorded from the early 1970s.
The use of the vulgar ‘farty’ as the reduplicated variant of _‘_arty’ works well in puncturing the pomposity of the affectedly artistic types who are mocked by this term.
See other reduplicated phrases.