Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Flibbertigibbet |
FlibbertigibbetNoun1. A female fool. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "flibbertigibbet" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1605. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Flibbertigibbet One of the five fiends that possessed "poor Tom." Shakespeare got it from Bishop Harsnet's account of the Spanish invasion, where we are told of forty fiends which the Jesuits cast out, and among the number was Fliberdigibet. Shakespeare says he "is the fiend of mopping and mowing, who possesses chambermaids and waiting women" (King Lear, iv. 2). And, again, that he "begins at curfew and walks till the first cock," giving men pins and needles, squint eyes, hare-lips, and so on. (Shakespeare: Lear, iii. 4.). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: FlibbertigibbetSynonym: foolish woman (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Demon | Vampire, ghoul; afreet, barghest, Loki; ogre, ogress; gnome, gin, jinn, imp, deev, lamia; bogie, bogeyman, bogle; nis, kobold, flibbertigibbet, fairy, brownie, pixy, elf, dwarf, urchin; Puck, Robin Goodfellow; leprechaun, Cluricaune, troll, dwerger, sprite, ouphe, bad fairy, nix, nixie, pigwidgeon, will-o'-the wisp. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Flibbertigibbet |
| Specialty definitions using "flibbertigibbet": Hare-lip. (references) |
| "Flibbertigibbet" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 75.00% of the time. "Flibbertigibbet" is used about 4 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 75% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 25% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 4 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
flibbertigibbet | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "flibbertigibbet"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | njeri i cekët, llafazan (babbler, big mouth, blab, blabber, blatant, chatterbox, chatterer, chatty, diffusive, gabber, garrulous, gasbag, gossip, gossipmonger, gossipy, long-tongued, loose-tongued, magpie, mouther, popinjay, prattler, rattle-box, rattler, rattletrap, sieve, spieler, storyteller, talebearer, talkative, tattler, tattletale, telltale, windbag). (various references) | |
German | junges gänschen. (various references) | |
Greek | φαφλατάσ (chatterer, ranter, windbag). (various references) | |
Hungarian | szeleburdi (featherbrain, flighty, giddy), manó (goblin, sprite, brownie, elf, elfin, hobgoblin, pixy, troll), locsifecsi személy, kobold (boggle, bogy, goblin, hobgoblin, pixie, pixy). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ibbertigibbetflay.(various references) | |
Romanian | flecar (babbler, blab, cackler, chatterbox, chatty, driveller, flippant, garrulous, magpie, rattler, sieve, talkative, talker, talky, telltale, windbag), om de nimic (a bad egg, jerk, kestrel, ne'er do well, nobody, scalawag, scamp, scoundrel), gurã-spartã (chatterbox, sieve). (various references) | |
Swedish | pratmakare (babbler, cackler, talker, windbag), oansvarig person, hoppetossa. (various references) | |
Turkish | hoppa tip, dedikoducu kimse (gossip, whisperer). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người ngồi lê đôi mách người có tính đồng bóng, người nông nổi người lúc nào cũng cựa quậy, người ba hoa (chatterer, tattler). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "flibbertigibbet": flibbertigibbets, flibbertigibbety. (additional references) | |
| |
"Flibbertigibbet" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: flibbertegibbet, flibbertigibbert, flibbertigibbit, flibbertigibet, flibbertygibbet, flibertygibbet. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words containing the letters "b-b-b-b-e-e-f-g-i-i-i-l-r-t-t" | |
+1 letter: flibbertigibbets, flibbertigibbety. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
