Spambot (and word) of the day
Flighty bot:
That is because I am a bit of a fliberttygibbet
Although spelled incorrectly, this is charming to me because it reminds me that there exists a delightful word, “flibbertigibbet,” which I’ve neither heard nor thought of in many a long decade. Thank you, spambot o’ mine!
Here’s the word’s origin and usage:
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. Its origin is in a meaningless representation of chattering. It does not always apply to females, however; it has also been used to describe Jiminy Cricket due to his whimsical, chatty nature.
This word also has a historical use as a name for a fiend, devil or spirit…
We are reminded, also, that it appears in the lyrics of the song “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria,” from the musical “The Sound of Music:” “A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!”
Odd that, as we too heard the word just recently (for the first time in ages).
We watched Joe versus the Volcano (1990, Tom Hanks & Meg Ryan) last Friday night, and one of the lines of the Angelica character (one of three roles Meg plays in the movie) is “I am completely untrustworthy… I’m a flibbertigibbet.”
…available on Amazon.
…and yes, Meg & Hanks, prior to Sleepless ….
I wonder if it has to do with the fact that “flibbertigibbet” happened to be one of the featured new words on http://dictionary.reference.com/
Each day they have some word game feature under the look-up box and yesterday it was unusual words.
I happened to look something up yesterday and perhaps it’s just a fluke-y coincidence, but flibbertygibbet was one of the words.
For some reason, Julie Andrews popped into my head & I realized I associated the word with her. So I proceded to go though her movie songs. At first I thought “Mary Poppins” but then realized it’s from the song “What Do You Do With A Problem Like Maria?” Maria being the novice nun which she played int the musical. Lyrics include calling her a “a flibbertiggibet….a clown.)
Oops! Didn’t get to your last paragraph before making my comment. You beat me to the song “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?”….
So, sorry for repetition. But it was featured on Dictionary.com yesterday, as well.
It’s straight from Shakespeare…
And from Captain Kidd: a gibbet is his final ‘resting’ place. The gibbet being commonly used with dummies / effigies as cautionary totem.
…
One can infer that the term refers to an un-cautious speaker.
Flibberty seems to be a neologism between flippant and liberty.
Hence, their total fusion being a stew of noise and vapidness.
A flibbertiggibet: a totally untrustworthy windbag — aka attention *h*re.
Which makes Obama a flibbertigibbet.
That’s what my grandmother used to call me. There’s a world of expressions and words that used to be and are so much a part of my childhood that when I hear them, I have a flood of memories
I remember first reading the Canadian writer Alice Munroe and I could hear my grandmother, my aunt and mother in the rhythms and the words and the retorts – Part Canadian, part Scot, part Midwest. Turns out she lives just 20 miles from the farm where my mother would go every summer when she was a child.
Jane Austin’s Emma is my favorite.
@bob – wonderful.
I hadn’t thought about it like that, but I so agree: Emma my favourite, too.
“flibbertigibbet” is still in use here in the South, though now that you mention it not as common as it once was.
Zasu Pitts comes immediately to my mind.