fickle

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fikel (“false, deceitful, inconstant”),^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English ficol (“deceitful, crafty”),^[5][6][7][8] formed with the suffix -le from an unrecorded verb *fician (“to deceive”), seen in befician (“to deceive”).^[5][6][8] It is related to ġefic (“deceit”), fǣcne (“deceitful”) and fācen (“deceit, treachery”),^{[8][5][9][10]} which corresponds to Old Saxon fēkan (“deceit”), Old High German feihhan (“deceit, fraud”) and Old Norse feikn (“portent”).^[8][6][11] Etymonline calls it a common Germanic word, from the same source as foe,^[9][12] and Klein and Merriam-Webster compare Latin piget (“it irks, disgusts”), Klein from Proto-Indo-European *peig- (“evil-minded, hostile”).^[11][3] Weekley thought it perhaps first meant quick movement, and related it to fidget.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

False, deceitful, treacherous, in Old English: the OED's first record is a gloss on Proverbs 14,^[5][7] and Barnhart dates ficol to before 1000.^[6] In Middle English the word appears in the Ancrene Riwle (about 1230) in "fikele & sweokele reades", deceitful and treacherous counsel.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant deceitful or treacherous, a sense that died out in the early 16th century,^[5][9] though of places ("treacherous, dangerous") it lived on in Scots.^[5][14] The modern sense, changeable and inconstant, appears before 1275 in the Proverbs of Alfred, of a changeable mind;^[5][2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300 and notes that it was used especially of Fortune and of women.^[9][5] The change follows naturally: one who cannot be trusted is one who does not stay the same.^[8][5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "changeable; unconstant; irresolute; wavering".^[15] A verb fickle, to puzzle or perplex, is recorded from 1567;^[5][14] it survived in Scots and northern dialect,^[16][3] and Scott used it in The Antiquary (1816).^[16][9]

Timeline

• before 1000 – Old English ficol, deceitful, crafty (this sense obsolete by 1533).^[6][5]
• c. 1230 – false, treacherous, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[2]
• before 1275 – changeable, inconstant.^[5][2]
• before 1398 – of places: treacherous, dangerous (later Scottish).^[5]
• 1567 – verb, to puzzle.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Changing one's mind, loyalties or affections often and without reason; capricious, inconstant: a fickle audience that soon found a new favourite.^[17][3][5]
2. Of things such as weather or fortune: unpredictable, changeable.^[5][3]
3. (obsolete) False, deceitful (Old English–1533).^[5][14][2]

Verb

1. (chiefly Scottish) To puzzle or perplex.^[3][14][16]

Word family

• fickleness
• fickly
• unfickle

Related words

• foe

Usage notes

Dictionary.com distinguishes fickle, which suggests an underlying perversity behind the changes, from inconstant (a natural tendency to change), capricious (change on sudden whim) and vacillating (change from lack of resolve).^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins