404meanings / The Scriptorium / Medieval / Flibbertigibbet

Medieval · insult · noun

Flibbertigibbet

FLIB-er-tee-JIB-it /ˌflɪbətiˈdʒɪbɪt/ (UK), /ˈflɪbɚtiˌdʒɪbɪt/ (US)pronunciation given by a dictionary

First recordedbefore 1450

before 1450, as 'flepergebet'

A chattering gossip; a flighty, frivolous person. It probably imitates the sound of meaningless fast talk. Around 1600 it was also the name of a devil — Shakespeare's Edgar calls 'the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet' in King Lear.

Where it was first recorded

The Castle of Perseverance (before 1450), as 'flepergebet', per the current OED; Merriam-Webster also dates the Middle English form to the 15th century. The Tudor spelling 'flybbergybes' is in Hugh Latimer's sermons, 1549 — the earliest citation in the first edition of the OED.

Also spelled: flepergebet, flibbergib, flybbergybe, flebergebet, flibber de' Jibb, flipperty-gibbet

In its own time

And when theſe flatterers, and flybbergybes an other daye ſhall come and clawe you by the backe and ſay.
Hugh Latimer, second sermon before King Edward VI, 15 March 1549 (Arber reprint, 1869). The long s is kept as ſ; transcribed from the Internet Archive scan, whose OCR renders ſ as 'f' — two separate scans read identically. · read it

Today

Modern exampleShe's no flibbertigibbet — she has changed her mind exactly once in ten years.

Harmless and playful — one of the best-loved old insults, still used affectionately.

Etymonline records the early sense as 'flighty woman'; today it is applied to anyone.

Questions

What does flibbertigibbet mean?

A chattering gossip; a flighty, frivolous person. It probably imitates the sound of meaningless fast talk. Around 1600 it was also the name of a devil — Shakespeare's Edgar calls 'the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet' in King Lear.

When was flibbertigibbet first used?

It is first recorded before 1450, as 'flepergebet' — The Castle of Perseverance (before 1450), as 'flepergebet', per the current OED; Merriam-Webster also dates the Middle English form to the 15th century. The Tudor spelling 'flybbergybes' is in Hugh Latimer's sermons, 1549 — the earliest citation in the first edition of the OED.

Can you still use flibbertigibbet today?

Harmless and playful — one of the best-loved old insults, still used affectionately.

Sources

  1. flibbertigibbet — Merriam-Webster
  2. flibbertigibbet — Etymonline (Online Etymology Dictionary)
  3. A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, vol. IV (F–G), 1901 — 'Flibbertigibbet' — Clarendon Press (via Internet Archive scan)
  4. Seven Sermons before Edward VI, 1549 (Arber reprint, 1869) — Internet Archive
  5. flibbertigibbet — Wiktionary
  6. flibbertigibbet (current OED, earliest evidence) — Oxford English Dictionary

Checked 2026-09-30 · verdict: attested — found in the dictionaries and texts listed above

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