byron and sardanapalus and fillip and debauch and flick and flirt and stimulus

The linguistic field of flirt is beginning to take shape before our eyes. Its original signification was to flick or propel. It took on the meaning of blurting out or rapping/striking, and could also be applied to the smart waving of a hand fan. These are in addition to the common usage of the verb today (to play amorously or to experiment). But so as not just to flirt with flirt, I need to say a few more things about the verb and the noun before going down a side road on the word fillip.

More on Flirt

Let's continue with flirt with the meaning of to jerk or spring or dart. Birds flirt, which means that they take short quick flights. From 1800: "The sparrow..Flirts here and there, and late returns to rest." Fish are said to flirt when they are first caught: "In flurting about (as all Fish will when first taken).." In this usage we see the similarity to flit. So, flit, flirt and flick, onomatopoiec cousins, are related in meaning.

But there is one more use of the verb to note, and that is "to turn up one's nose; hence, to sneer, gibe, scoff at." When we say "to turn up one's nose," we are actually thinking of physical changes that happen to the nose--the nose dilates or broadens. The nose turns up as we look down on someone. You wonder if nose and eyes ever meet. As early as 1553 we have "They have...nosethrilles flyrtting upwarde & wyde." Oh my, nosethrill. Did you notice that term? I had to do an all-too-brief journey to that word, and saw that one of the original spellings (in fact there were about 20 spellings) is "nose-thirl" or "nose-thrill." Thrill means "thirl," and "thirl" means "a hole, bore, perforation or aperture." Phew, we have that one solved, without extensive difficulty, at least for now. Returning, then, to flirt. A 1603 English translation of one of Montaigne's brilliant essays speaks of the famous event where the tub-dwelling Cynic philosopher Diogenes gave Alexander the Great the brush off. "Diogenes..in..rowling of his tub, and flurting at Alexander." And a theological writer could say that Christ was derided and flirted at by diverse sorts of people.

More on the Noun

The basic meaning of the noun flirt is a tap or blow or rap. The OED tells us this meaning is obsolete (From 1691: "I'll give you a good flurt on the Ear"), but that it can also mean a sudden jerk or daring motion or, with respect to the wind, a gust. Two examples will suffice. From 1699: "There may be some-times some small flurts of a Westerly Wind on these Coasts," or, from 1666: "As weak as the Grasshoppers who give only a small flirt upwards, and then fall down to the Earth again." Just as flirt as a verb means to sneer at, so a flirt is a jest, gibe, jeer or scoff. Jonathan Swift's words are too good to miss: "Open reproaches, jesting flirts and contumelious terms."

Then there is one meaning, relating to watchmaking that I am sure that very few know (I surely didn't). It is flirt as 'a lever or other device for causing sudden movement of mechanism,' and is normally used with the verb "discharge." So, from 1884: "The independent seconds had is generally discharged by a flirt taking into a pinion." Such wealth in one word, and we have reduced it to making faux amorous advances. Words in the English language of the 21st century are like a balloon that has lost its air. Only a thin little rubber tube remains. Let's blow it up and see its size and brilliance.

Fillip

I only take this slight detour because it is a word appearing in the first definition of flirt as noun. A flirt is "a smart tap or blow, a rap, fillip." I thought I knew what fillip meant before I read this definition of flirt. I thought fillip meant what the OED says is the third definition of the term: "Something that serves to rouse, excite, or animate; a stimulus." Yes, a fillip is a stimulus. Sometimes I love synonym dictionaries, and they give the following for fillip: "incentive, stimulus, spur, whip, goad, ankus, rowel, provocative, whet." Whoops. We really could get waylaid here, couldn't we? I won't permit it. So, we know that as early as 1700 a fillip was a stimulus or something that animates. I can't resist giving the 1700 quotation from a dictionary. "To give nature a fillip, to Debauch a little now and then with Women, or Wine."

But I will close this essay by returning to the basic definition of fillip, from the 16th century--"a movement made by bending the last joint of a finger against the thumb and suddenly releasing it (so as to propel some small object..)." Hence, a fillip is a flick, a flirt. We have also seen the similarity of flirt with flit, and the OED tells us that fillip is onomatopoiec with flip as well as flirt, so we have a veritable party of "f's" now, don't we (fillip, flip, flirt, flit, flick). To show how sophisticated the life of the aristocracy was (and is), we can quote from Boswell's Johnson: "The Prince..by a fillip, made some of it [wine] fly in Oglethorpe's face."

Finally, by extension from the previous definition, fillip can mean something trivial or insiginficant--a trifle. So let's close with a line from Byron's 1821 tragedy Sardanapalus: "Eat, drink, and love; the rest's not worth a fillip." Words to live by...

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