Flibbertigibbet

Flibbertigibbet is a Middle English word referring to a flighty or whimsical person, usually a young woman. In modern use, it is used as a slang term, especially in Yorkshire, for a gossipy or overly talkative person.

Etymology

Its origin may lie in a meaningless representation of chattering.[1]

In literature and culture

This word also has a historical use as a name for a fiend, devil, or spirit. In the 15th-century English morality play The Castle of Perseverance, the Bad Angel addresses the vice figure Detraccio (also called Backbiter and the messenger of the World) as Flyprgebet (line 1724). In Shakespeare's King Lear (IV, i (1605)), he is one of the five fiends that Edgar claimed was possessing him, this one in the posture of beggar Tom o' Bedlam. Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnett's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603),[2] where one reads of 40 fiends which Jesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, described as one of "foure deuils of the round, or Morrice, whom Sara in her fits, tuned together, in measure and sweet ucadence."

It has been used by extension as a synonym for Puck. It is also used as a nickname for a character in Sir Walter Scott's Kenilworth, and has gained the meaning of an impish child.[3] Victor Hugo made an adaptation of the novel Kenilworth: Amy Robsart, where Flibbertigibet is one of the main characters in the story.

Flibbertigibbet similarly is featured as a name in a local legend about Wayland's Smithy. According to the tale, Flibbertigibbet was apprentice to Wayland the Smith and greatly exasperated his master.[4] Eventually, Wayland threw Flibbertigibbet down the hill and into a valley, where he was transformed into a stone. Scott associates his Flibbertigibbet character in Kenilworth with Wayland Smith.[5]

In 1942, author Roald Dahl wrote his first children's novel, The Gremlins, in which "Gremlins" were tiny men who lived on RAF fighters. In the same novel, Dahl called the wives of gremlins "Fifinellas", their male children "Widgets", and their female children "Flibbertigibbets".

In the 1990 American romantic comedy film Joe Versus the Volcano, Meg Ryan's character Angelica refers to herself as a flibbertigibbet.

In 2018 British Author Chris Redmile released a children's book entitled The Flibber-ti-gibbet, a read in rhyme book designed to educate children about the traits of ADHD.[6]

References
  1. "World Wide Words: Flibbertigibbet". World Wide Words.
  2. "Flibbertigibbet & Purre: An Undiscovered Pun from King Lear?". inamidst.com.
  3. New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
  4. "Wayland the Smith". www.waylands.net. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-08-24.
  5. http://www.merriam-webster.com/word/word.php?date=Mar-13-2009
  6. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1726608468/
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