Flibbertigibbet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flibbertigibbet (from middle English flipergebet) may refer to:

• A character in Anglo-Saxon mythology, apprentice to Wayland Smith. This character was mentioned in the novel Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott.

• A slang term, used especially in Yorkshire, for a gossipy or overly talkative person.

• A female demon who seduces men; a succubus.

• A flighty or whimsical person, usually a young female.

• One of the five fiends that possessed 'poor Tom' in King Lear (IV, i (1605)). Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnet's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where one reads of 40 fiends, which Jesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, a name that had been previously used by Latimer and others for a mischievous gossip. Elsewhere the name is apparently a synonym for Puck. Its origin is in a meaningless representation of chattering. The word is now used generally for a gossiping or restless person. Sir Walter Scott uses it as a nickname for Dickie Sludge, the 'queer shambling, ill-made urchin' in Kenilworth (1821)

• Any talkative, scatterbrained person

[edit] Literature & Media

The term is used in:

• "... a flibbertigibbet, a will o' the wisp, a clown ..." part of the song "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" from The Sound of Music
• "... I'm a flibbertigibbet." Angelica's description of herself as part of the dialog in Joe Vs. The Volcano
• "I'm such a flibbertigibbet!" Constance in the film Trading Places
• "All this responsibility at such an early age had made her a bitchy flibbertigibbet." referring to Barbara in Slaughterhouse-Five

[edit] External links

• Flibbertigibbet's heel mark
• Kenilworth passage mentioning Flibbertigibbet

" Loopty Loop and Flibbertigibbet" said by Hank Hill in an episode of King of the Hill