My protagonist Inez Stannert would surely bristle if someone called her a flibbertigibbet, and rightly so! The term might more aptly be applied to one of my secondary San Francisco characters, Carmella Donato. The definition according to Merriam-Webster is "a silly flighty person."
Hmmm.
Now I'm wondering... have I ever heard a man called a flibbertigibbet? Can't say that I have. So is it a gender-neutral appellation? And when did it first come into use?
Time for some research!
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Merriam-Webster says this about the word's background:
Flibbertigibbet is one of many incarnations of the Middle English word flepergebet, meaning "gossip" or "chatterer." (Others include "flybbergybe," "flibber de' Jibb," and "flipperty-gibbet.") It is a word of onomatopoeic origin, created from sounds that were intended to represent meaningless chatter. Shakespeare apparently saw a devilish aspect to a gossipy chatterer; he used "flibbertigibbet" in King Lear as the name of a devil. This use never caught on, but the devilish connotation of the word reappeared over 200 years later when Sir Walter Scott used "Flibbertigibbet" as the nickname of an impish urchin in the novel Kenilworth. The impish meaning derived from Scott's character was short-lived and was laid to rest by the 19th-century's end, leaving us with only the "silly flighty person" meaning.
World Wide Words provides a time frame for the early incarnation (1450 for fleper-gebet), adding "It started out to mean a gossip or chattering person, but quickly seems to have taken on the idea of a flighty or frivolous woman."
The Online Etymological Dictionary also pins this word on the fairer sex, providing as a definition: "chattering gossip, flighty woman."
The Word Detective also dives into the word's use and background, noting that flibbertigibbet first appeared in print in 1549, and going on to say, that, while it is, strictly speaking, a gender-neutral word, "in practice it is, and long has been, usually applied to women." The post concludes, somewhat snidely:
The air-brained motormouths among us have given us more than just “flibbertigibbet,” of course. The words “babble,” “prattle” and “chatter” all also originated as onomatopoeic attempts to replicate the sound of someone who has nothing to say but simply will not shut up.I guess I'd better conclude this post or stand accused of running on at the mouth, which would make me a...
... well, you know.
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| Equal opportunity for flibbertigibbets! Gossip, by Eugene de Blaas (1903) - Christie's, Public Domain, Link |
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3 comments:
Love this, and plan to use it!
Shakespeare's usage makes sense in a biblical context, given Jezebel's gruesome ending as punishment for false testimony, or malicious gossip. And gossip similarly played a part in the Salem witch trials, at which 9 of the 12 accusers were female. And common law crimes of scolds evolved into exclusively feminine offenses. Clearly, the female tongue was a feared instrument. So it doesn't surprise me that the more benign forms of speech are associated with women as well.
Good point, Liz!
And Camille: I hope you can find someplace to work this word in... :-)
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