flaky

Etymology

It is formed from English flake + -y.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The noun is of uncertain origin, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *flacca (“flakes of snow”) or from the related Old Norse flak (“flat piece”).^[3] The slang sense "eccentric, unreliable" arose in American baseball talk about 1959,^[7][3][8] and its source is debated.^[2][3][7] The OED compares the verb flake out, as though the person were exhausted or drugged;^[2] Etymonline prefers the drug slang “flake”, cocaine, of the 1920s,^[3] and Dalzell quotes a 1967 baseball glossary that credits that link to Partridge;^[8] Green's Dictionary of Slang suggests the image of something crumbling into flakes and coming apart.^[7] Dictionary.com derives the sense probably from the noun “flake”, an eccentric person, with influence from the ordinary noun,^[6] whereas Etymonline takes that noun (1968) as a back-formation from the adjective,^[3] and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate enters the slang adjective separately, dated about 1963.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Consisting of flakes or of what looks like them, said especially of snow: 1580, in Sir P. Sidney's translation of the Psalms.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also gives 1580,^[4] and Etymonline dates the word to the 1570s.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined it as loosely hanging together, quoting the "flaky darkness" of Shakespeare's Richard III.^[10] From 1672 it was used of things that split easily into flakes, with flaky-spar as a local name for calcite; from 1837 it was used of pastry made of thin delicate layers.^[2] The slang sense was first explained in 1959 as an insider's baseball word that had replaced wacky and squirrely,^[7] and a New York Times article of 1964 described it as stronger than "screwball" but not as crude as "crazy".^[3][7][2] By the late 1960s it was applied to things as well as people, for anything odd, unreliable or erratic,^[7][2] and it was in British use by 1973.^[7] Dalzell glosses the sense as inattentive, distracted or unreliable.^[8]

Timeline

• 1580 – consisting of flakes, especially of snow.^[2][4][11] Etymonline dates the word to the 1570s.^[3]
• 1672 – separating easily into flakes.^[2][11]
• 1776 – used of a flame.^[2]
• 1803 – full of locks or tufts of hair.^[2]
• 1837 – of pastry, made of thin delicate layers when baked.^[2][11]
• 1959 – baseball slang, of a person: eccentric, odd, unreliable.^[7][3][8] The OED's first quotation is from 1964.^[2]
• 1966 – of things: odd, crazy, unreliable or erratic.^[7] The OED's first quotation is from 1972.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made up of flakes or looking like them: flaky snow.^[4][2][6]
2. Tending to break off in flakes or thin layers; of pastry, light and layered: a flaky crust.^[4][2][6]
3. (slang, originally US) Odd, eccentric or slightly crazy: her flaky downstairs neighbour.^[4][6][7][2]
4. (slang) Unreliable, forgetful or erratic.^[7][8][2]

Word family

• flakily
• flakiness
• nonflaky
• unflaky

Related words

• flake
• flake out

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c d e Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)