flake

flake¹ hurdle, drying rack

Etymology

The hurdle is inherited from Middle English fleke, also flake and fleike,^[5][2][6] probably borrowed from Old Norse flaki, also fleki (“hurdle, wicker shield”);^[1][2][6][7] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English call the Norse origin only possible.^[3][8] It corresponds to Danish flage (“hurdle”), Middle Dutch vlāke (“hurdle”), whose modern Dutch form vlaak is a hurdle on which wool is beaten, and Middle Low German flake (“a kind of fishing net”).^[1][9][7] The OED thinks the senses point to a root meaning "to plait", but finds a link with Proto-Germanic *flehtaną (“to plait”) phonologically difficult, and takes Latin plaga (“net”) as probably cognate.^[1] Merriam-Webster relates the word to Old English flōc (“flounder”), Old Saxon flaka (“sole of the foot”) and Old High German flah (“smooth”),^[2] Klein connects it with flake²,^[7] and the American Heritage Dictionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *plāk-.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hurdle of wattled work: in 1323 the accounts of the chamber of Edward II, written in French, record six flakes of rods bought for use.^[5] The OED's first English quotation is from about 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle.^[1]

Semantic evolution

From the woven hurdle, used for fences and also as a temporary gate (about 1514),^[1][5] the word passed to other frames of sticks or boards: a rack for storing food, about 1420, in the Middle English Palladius, later especially for oatcakes;^[1][3] a stage or frame for drying fish or other produce, from 1623, in Richard Whitbourne's account of Newfoundland;^[1][2] and in lead mining a framework of boards sheltering against wind and rain (1653).^[1][3] A flap on a saddle was also called a flake in 1568.^[1] In Scotland, Ireland and northern and western England flake (also fleak, fleke, vlake) was still a hurdle or a gate of wands at the end of the 19th century.^[10]

Timeline

• 1323 – a wattled hurdle, in the accounts of the chamber of Edward II.^[5] The OED's first quotation is from about 1330.^[1]
• c. 1420 – a frame or rack for storing provisions.^[1][3]
• c. 1514 – a hurdle used as a temporary gate.^[1]
• 1623 – a stage or frame for drying fish.^[1][2]
• 1653 – in mining, a framework of boards used as a shelter.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rack, platform or tray for drying fish or other produce.^[2][1][3]
2. A frame or rack for storing provisions, especially oatcakes.^[1][3][2]
3. (dialect) A hurdle or movable section of fence, sometimes used as a gate.^{[2][1][3][10]}
4. (mining) A framework of boards sheltering a working against wind and rain.^[2][1][3]

flake² thin piece, snowflake

Etymology

The thin piece is inherited from Middle English flake, also flauke, flagge and flage,^[5][11] of uncertain origin.^{[1][11][12][3]} Barnhart, Klein and Merriam-Webster think it probably borrowed from Old Norse flak (“loose or torn piece”) or another Scandinavian word,^{[13][7][2][11]} while Etymonline also allows an unrecorded Old English *flacca (“flakes of snow”),^[11][13] which Junius cited but which is not found in Old English texts.^[13][1] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford compare Norwegian flak (“patch, flake; disc, floe”), Swedish isflak (“ice floe”) and flakna (“to flake off, split”),^[12][3][2] and the MED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate compare flacor (“flying (of arrows)”).^[5][9][13] Etymonline traces the Norse word to Proto-Germanic *flaką,^[11][4] which is also the source of Middle Dutch vlac, Dutch vlak (“flat, level”) and Middle High German vlach,^[11][7] and to Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“to be flat”).^[11][6] The OED thinks several words may have merged in it, compares flóki (“flock of wool, lock of hair”) for the snow sense and flay for the sense "something peeled off",^[1] and Ayto relates it to flaw, floe and the flag that is a stone slab.^[14] Weekley derived it instead from Latin floccus (“tuft of wool”).^[15]

The informal noun for an eccentric or unreliable person is a back-formation from flaky,^[11][16][17] though Merriam-Webster's Collegiate takes it as perhaps from flake out.^[9] The OED compares that verb at the slang sense of the adjective, and derives the verb itself, to faint or fall asleep from exhaustion, as a variant of an obsolete verb flack and of the verb flag, to droop;^[1][3][8] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged takes it as probably from this noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flake of snow: before 1325, in English glosses to Bibbesworth's French treatise, which render a French phrase as a flake of snowe.^[5][13] Etymonline dates the word to the early 14th century,^[11] and the OED's first quotation is from Chaucer's Hous of Fame, about 1384.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Already in Middle English a flake was also a speck or spot (late 14th century) and a piece of burning matter thrown off by a fire, as in the poem Cleanness of about 1400.^{[11][5][1][12]} The sense "a small flat fragment, a scale" is recorded from about 1525, a thin piece split off a surface from 1591, later especially a chip of stone used as a tool in prehistoric times, and a sheet of floating ice from 1555.^[1] The King James Bible (1611) used flakes of the layers into which the flesh of a fish falls apart.^[1] The verb, first of snow falling in flakes, is from the noun, recorded before 1420 in Lydgate's Troy Book;^[13][11][1] it was used transitively for "to cover with flakes" from 1602,^[1][2] for "to break or rub off in flakes" from the 1620s,^[11][1] and intransitively for "to come off in flakes" from 1759 or 1760.^[11][1] Johnson (1755) explained a flake as anything loosely held together, like a flock of wool.^[18] In the 20th century the word was applied to cocaine (1911),^[16] to dogfish sold as food (1906),^[1][2] and, short for cornflakes, to breakfast cereal (1951).^[1] The slang adjective flaky, said of an eccentric person, began in American baseball talk about 1959,^[11][16] and the noun flake for such a person followed;^[16][11][9] the American Heritage Dictionary also records it for someone who cannot be relied on to keep appointments.^[6] The phrasal verb flake out, to collapse or fall asleep from exhaustion, is recorded from 1939 or 1942.^[2][1] In Ireland and Australia flake meant to beat or thrash from 1841.^[16][1][10]

Timeline

• before 1325 – a flake of snow.^[5][13] The OED's first quotation is from about 1384, in Chaucer.^[1]
• late 14th century – a speck or spot.^[11][5]
• c. 1400 – a piece of burning matter thrown off by a fire.^[1][12]
• before 1420 – verb, of snow, to fall in flakes.^[13][11]
• c. 1525 – a small scale or flat fragment.^[1]
• 1555 – a sheet of floating ice, a floe.^[1]
• 1591 – a thin piece split off a surface, later a stone chip used as a prehistoric tool.^[1]
• 1602 – verb, to cover with or as with flakes.^[1][2]
• 1620s – verb, to break or peel off in flakes.^[11]
• 1759 – verb, to come off in flakes.^[11][1]
• 1906 – a name for dogfish sold as food.^[1]
• 1911 – cocaine.^[16]
• 1939 – flake out, to collapse or fall asleep from exhaustion.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1942.^[1]
• 1951 – flakes, cornflakes.^[1]
• 1959 – an eccentric or unreliable person.^[16] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1964 and Etymonline to 1968.^[9][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, thin, flat piece of something, especially one broken or peeled off a surface: flakes of rust on the railing.^[19][2][6]
2. A snowflake, or any small loose bit like one.^[19][2][1]
3. (archaeology) A fragment struck from a larger stone, used as a tool or as the blank for one.^[19][6][1]
4. A thin layer or stratum.^[19][1]
5. Usually in the plural, small pieces of crushed, dried food, such as cereal or fish food.^[8][1]
6. (informal, chiefly North American) An eccentric person, or one who cannot be relied on.^{[6][8][16][9]}
7. (slang) Cocaine.^[6][16]
8. (British) Dogfish sold as food.^[2][1]

Verb

1. To come off in flakes; to peel: The old varnish had flaked off the door.^[19][2][1]
2. To break into flakes: Flake the cooked salmon with a fork.^[2][19]
3. To cover with flakes, or with something like them.^[2][1]
4. To chip flakes from a stone, as in making flint tools.^[2][1]
5. flake out (informal): to fall asleep or collapse from exhaustion.^[2][1][3]

Word family

• flaker
• flakeless
• flakelet
• flaky
• snowflake
• flake white
• flake out
• flakeboard
• cornflake