I found this on Wikipedia:

Farb (reenactment)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Ten things you didn't know about Wikipedia •Jump to: navigation, search
Farb is a derogatory term used in the hobby of historical reenacting for participants who exhibit less commitment to historical authenticity.

In addition, the term farb has since been repurposed for other uses, but mainly as a general derogatory term similar to the use of many modern profane terms.

The term originates, according to Jenny Thompson, from a contraction of the phrase "Far be it from me...", a prelude to criticizing another reenactor's authenticity. As in "Far be it from me to pass judgement, but your helmet is incorrect."

Farb is also used as a adjective ("You're wearing jockey shorts underneath that calvary uniform? That's so farb."

Descrïption

Origin
Farb was created by mixing to words to describe something that is fake or looks un-authentic, fake (F) and Garb (arb) and was first used in the 1960's to describe the uniforms and tactics of the first budding reenactment groups.

Meaning
Farb is the amount of innacuracy in a reproduction uniform. The more innacurate a uniform is, the higher the "Farb Factor" is. The farb factor is used alot especially in reproduction German World War II uniforms, as they are hard to reproduce and take more time to make than US pattern uniforms.

In Reenacting
Elimination
Many reenactment groups try to reduce the amount of "farb" in their group by placing strict limits including:

From where the uniform can be bought
Who manufactured the uniform
Amount of detail in the uniform (# stitches per CM on German uniform, etc...)
Letting the public place vendor reviews on who to buy from and who is a "Farb"

my 11yos favorite word
"that is so farby" while pointing to a soda can.
"im wearing farby gloves today" while pulling on the crochet gloves

perhaps i need to tell her how derogatory it is

Misspellings in a wikipedia entry always boost my confidence level in the information.

Sung to the old Spiderman cartoon theme:

Farby shoes, farby shoes
Look like anything you may choose
Big or small, just your size
Show how hard the wearer tries
Look Out!
He's wearin' farby shoes!

 

--Last edited by Bullet Sponge on 2007-09-22 21:58:24 --

Yeah Bill, that was a direct cut and paste.

Ken,

You could post links to either or both of the online CCG articles about this very topic. My guess is some people have never seen either one of them. Just a thought.

The link didn't work here was why I didn't post it.  However, copy it and insert it into your browser and it should work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farb_(reenactment)

Scroll down to link up to the two articles Chas is talking about.

Ken,

I was mentioning these two from Wes Clark's website:

http://wesclark.com/jw/forigin.html

http://wesclark.com/jw/kimmel.html

Useful background info without having to rekey it each time.