Flibbertigibbet is aMiddle English word referring to a flighty or whimsical person. In modern use, it is used as a slang term, especially inYorkshire, England for agossipy or overly talkative person.
Its origin may lie in a meaningless representation of chattering.[1]
This word also has a historical use as a name for a fiend, devil, or spirit. In the 15th-century English morality playThe Castle of Perseverance, the Bad Angel addresses the vice figure Detraccio (also called Backbiter and the messenger of the World) asFlyprgebet (line 1724). InWilliam Shakespeare'sKing Lear (IV, i (1605)), he is one of the fivefiends that Edgar claimed was possessing him, this one in the posture of beggarTom o' Bedlam. Shakespeare got the name fromSamuel Harsnett'sDeclaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603),[2][citation needed] where one reads of 40 fiends thatJesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, described as one of "foure deuils of the round, or Morrice, whomSara in her fits, tuned together, in measure and sweet ucadence."
It has been used by extension as a synonym forPuck. It is also used as a nickname for a character inSir Walter Scott'sKenilworth, and has gained the meaning of an impish child.[3]Victor Hugo made a 1828 theatrical adaptation of the novelKenilworth titledAmy Robsart, where Flibbertigibet is one of the main characters in the story.
Flibbertigibbet similarly is featured as a name in a local legend aboutWayland's Smithy. According to the tale, Flibbertigibbet was apprentice toWayland the Smith and greatly exasperated his master.[4] Eventually, Wayland threw Flibbertigibbet down the hill and into a valley, where he was transformed into a stone. Scott associates his Flibbertigibbet character inKenilworth with Wayland Smith.[5]
In 1942, authorRoald Dahl wrote his first children's novel,The Gremlins, in which Gremlins were tiny men who lived on RAF fighters. In the same novel, Dahl called the wives of gremlins "Fifinellas", their male children "Widgets", and their female children "Flibbertigibbets".
The nuns describe free-spirited Sister Maria as "A flibbertigibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!" in the show tune "Maria" from the 1959 Broadway musicalThe Sound of Music byRodgers and Hammerstein, and in the subsequent1965 movie.[6]
In the 1969 bookSlaughterhouse-Five byKurt Vonnegut, Barbara Pilgrim, the daughter of the protagonist, is described as a "bitchy flibbertigibbet".
In the 1990 American romantic comedy filmJoe Versus the Volcano, Meg Ryan's character Angelica refers to herself as a flibbertigibbet.
In the 2011 bookReady Player One, Art3mis, a famous female gunter and blogger, refers to herself as a Flibbertigibbet upon meeting the protagonist.[7]
In 2018 British Author Chris Redmile released a children's book titledThe Flibber-ti-gibbet, a read in rhyme book designed to educate children about the traits ofADHD.[8]
In 2022 British politicianLord Cormack referred toMichael Gove as a "Flibbertigibbet" following disputes over the relocation of the House of Lords.[9]
