flibbertigibbet

Meaning

Noun

• An offbeat, skittish person; especially said of a young woman.
• A flighty person; someone regarded as silly, irresponsible, or scatterbrained, especially someone who chatters or gossips.
• An imp, a fiend.

Origin

• From late Middle English first attested 1549 probably imitative of nonsense uttered by gossips. Usage as an imp or fiend and name of the Devil from around 1603.
• Alternatively (but far less likelily), an alteration of flibbergib, derived potentially from an Old Norse ("babbler of nonsense"). The hypothetical Old Norse term would have been a compound of fleipra (a variant of fleipa), and geipa or geipare. fleipa is notably the ancestor to the flip- part of the English word flippant. It is of note that the original meaning of flibbergib was “chatterer”.