flail

Meanings

Noun

• A tool used for threshing, consisting of a long handle with a shorter stick attached with a short piece of chain, thong or similar material.
• A weapon which has the (usually spherical) striking part attached to the handle with a flexible joint such as a chain.

Verb

• To beat using a flail or similar implement.
• To wave or swing vigorously
• To thresh.
• To move like a flail.

Related

Similar words

• threshel, thrashel

Origin

• From Middle English flaile, flayle, from earlier fleil, fleyl, fleȝȝl, from Old English fligel, *flegel, from Proto-West Germanic *flagil, from Proto-Germanic *flagilaz, of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots flail, West Frisian fleil, flaaiel, Dutch vlegel, Low German vlegel, German Flegel. Possibly a native Germanic word from Proto-Germanic *flag-, *flah-, from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k-; compare Lithuanian plàkti, Ancient Greek πληγνύναι, Latin plangō + Proto-Germanic *-ilaz; or a borrowing of Latin flagellum, diminutive of flagrum, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlag-, *bʰlaǵ-; compare Old Norse blekkja. Compare also Old French flael, Walloon flayea (locally pronounced "flai"), Italian flagello ("scourge, whip, plague").