Word.ws English Dictionary

farb

farb noun: a historical reenactor (especially an American Civil War reenactor) whose efforts at a historically accurate portrayal are, in the opinion of the speaker, inadequate (for example, wearing a modern wristwatch with period costume). The opposite of farb is "hard-core" (or hardcore), someone who is, in the opinion of the speaker, an "authenticity fanatic".

farb: a historical reenactor (especially an American Civil War reenactor) whose efforts at a historically...
Image: Staghounds, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

farb (plural farbs)

  1. (US) A historical reenactor (especially an American Civil War reenactor) whose efforts at a historically accurate portrayal are, in the opinion of the speaker, inadequate (for example, wearing a modern wristwatch with period costume). The opposite of farb is "hard-core" (or hardcore), someone who is, in the opinion of the speaker, an "authenticity fanatic".
    • "Farb was the worst insult in the hardcore vocabulary. It referred to reenactors who approached the past past with a lack of verisimilitude.1998, Tony Horwitz, Confederates in the Attic, 1st Vintage Departures edition, Vintage Books, →ISBN, page 10

Verb

farb (third-person singular simple present farbs, present participle farbing, simple past and past participle farbed)

  1. (US, intransitive, slang) To act like a farb; to portray a historical character in an inauthentic way.

Forms of farb

Noun
pluralfarbs
Verb
third-person singular presentfarbs
present participlefarbing
past participlefarbed
pastfarbed

Origin of farb

Disputed. Various explanations of the origin are given: * That it is a contraction of the phrase "far be it from me to criticize anyone, but...", or of "far below" (the expected standard). * That it comes from the German word Farbe ("colour") (many fabrics dyed with modern dyes are "too colourful" to be authentic, by comparison with their historical originals). * There exists a letter dated 1 April 1863 from an A.R. Crawford in the 76th Illinois Infantry, Co D, that uses the phrase, "fallacious accoutrements & reprehensible baggage," in description of six children posing in phony military gear during a sham reenactment that took place during the actual Civil War. Many point to this phrase as the origin of the word, citing "farb" as an acronym. * Many early replica rifles were marked with what looked like "F.A.R.B." among the proofmarks. Removing this would make the rifle look more authentic.

Words formed from farb

Questions about farb

What does farb mean?
Farb means a historical reenactor (especially an American Civil War reenactor) whose efforts at a historically accurate portrayal are, in the opinion of the speaker, inadequate (for example, wearing a modern wristwatch with period costume). The opposite of farb is "hard-core" (or hardcore), someone who is, in the opinion of the speaker, an "authenticity fanatic".
What part of speech is farb?
Farb can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of farb?
The plural of farb is farbs.

Words near farb in the dictionary

  1. faraway
  2. farawayness
  3. faraways
  4. faraz
  5. farazes
  6. farb
  7. Farbauti
  8. Farbe center
  9. farbed
  10. Farber
  11. Farber disease

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: farb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-farb.ogg.

Cite this entry: “farb.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/farb. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.