Spot the Frippet: a neighbour.

 Do you have good neighbours?

Will they water the plants while you're away, or happily take in parcels, or smilingly accept five pounds of surplus plums?

Or do you have the kind of neighbours who have loudspeakers in the garden, or park their cars across your drive, or plant a row of Leyland Cypresses on the South side of your garden? 

Or expect you to listen to their child's performances?

caricature by James Gillray

Or, are they people who, if they bump into you, want to talk for hours and hours and hours? Do they peep round the curtains as you walk along the street? Do you hear so much gossip from them that you can't help wondering what people are saying about you?

painting by John William Waterhouse

Neighbours can be a pain and a nuisance. 

The Bully of the Neighbourhood. Painting by John George Brown

But at least, if that is the case, there is some small satisfaction to be taken in knowing the derivation of the word.

Spot the Frippet: neighbour. This word was nēahbūr in Old English. Nēah comes from nigh, which means near, and the rest comes from gebūr, which means dweller and is basically the same word as boor, which is an ill-mannered, clumsy or insensitive person.