Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Flype

 I was paging through The Little Book of Lost Words by Joe Gillard when I bumped into flype and wondered, "What is THAT?"

The answer lies below (keep scrolling)...

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According to Gillard, flype (pronounced flahyp) is a 17th-century verb of Scottish origin that means "to roll up your socks before putting them on. To fold socks inside out in pairs. To fold something back."

How lovely! As a connoisseur of socks (the more colorful the better) I am pleased that there is a word so specific to sock-care.

Ah, but a quick look around the internet reveals more... SO much more... for flype.

Wikipedia notes that, in the mathematical theory of knots (!! I had no idea there was such a field), a flype is "a kind of manipulation of knot and link diagrams used in the Tait flyping conjecture." 

Whaaaat?

Okay, I can't just stop there.

Clicking the link on the Tait flyping conjecture (whoever writes these Wikipedia entries has my everlasting admiration) leads to the following: 

The Tait conjectures are three conjectures made by 19th-century mathematician Peter Guthrie Tait in his study of knots. The Tait conjectures involve concepts in knot theory such as alternating knots, chirality, and writhe. All of the Tait conjectures have been solved, the most recent being the Flyping conjecture.

Alternating knots! Chirality! Writhe! I am dazzled anew!

But I mustn't get sidetracked from the Flyping conjecture, which is explained in a subsection of the main article. However, it all gets pretty mathematical at that point, so I'll simply borrow the diagram that shows flyping as applied to a knot

A flype consists of turning a tangle, T, by 180 degrees.
By Jkasd - Own work, Public Domain
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3872115

The "See Also" section of this Wikipedia entry on provides links to prime knot and tangle, and at this point, I am thinking about knots and tangles and shoelaces and wondering if I am digressing into the realm of messy shoelaces vs neatly folded socks...

I'm gonna flype these babies after I wash them.