h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have been wondering for a few years what this word means (no, I'm not going to even attempt to spell it)! If anyone else has read Heinlein's _The Number of the Beast_, you'll remember that twice, a character is called a flocc. . .er, and I've been trying to find the definition since. I even looked in the OED, and couldn't find it. Either I misspelled the word, or it was an abridged OED. (I think it was the latter--it was only one really big volume)

I'm deeply annoyed to read this is the true definition as after persistenly nagging at my Year 9 Latin teacher (I am now in Year 11) she told the whole class that the meaning of the word came from an Eton School handwriting notebook and meant 'to be in the habit of looking at the negetive aspect of a situation as it arises'.

I always had a suspicion that all my teachers were blagging through lessons and it seems I was right! (If only I had known at the time, there's no better to disrupt a Year 9 Latin lesson than contradict this particular teacher, unless of course you are capable of such feats as vomitting at will.... although that really is a little off-topic.)