Etymologically
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flare

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /flɛə̯/[1]
  • US: /flɛɚ̯/[1]

Etymology

The verb is of unknown origin.[2][3][4][5][6] Etymonline suggests a Scandinavian source or Middle Dutch vlederen (“to flutter”),[7][8] and the Shorter Oxford and Onions think a Scandinavian origin possible.[9][10] The OED and Barnhart note that Norwegian flara (“to blaze; to flaunt in gaudy clothes”) has been compared, but reject it because the English sense "to blaze" appears only about 75 years after the word itself.[2][4] Johnson, after Skinner, derived it from the Dutch word, and thought it might also be an alteration of glare;[11] Klein suggested a blend of flame and glare,[12] and Weekley thought it was influenced by glare.[13] The noun is formed from the verb.[2][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To spread out the hair, or to show something spread out: about 1550, in the poem Robin Conscience.[2][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The first uses are about hair and clothes spreading out or streaming in the wind, a sense recorded from 1579 to 1837,[2][9] and Johnson (1755) defined the word as to flutter with a splendid show, quoting Shakespeare's "ribbands pendant flaring 'bout her head".[11] From 1633 it was used of people displaying themselves conspicuously, a sense now obsolete,[2] and flaring came to mean showy or gaudy.[10] The sense "to burn with a spreading, unsteady flame" appears in 1633, in George Herbert;[2][7][4] the OED thinks this is a later development.[2] The idea of spreading outward gradually starts with the sides of a ship (1644) and was extended to bowls, skirts and the mouths of horns (1834).[2][7] To flare up, to burst into a sudden blaze, and figuratively to break out in anger, is recorded from 1846.[2] The noun, a dazzling and unsteady light, dates from 1815 in the OED (1814 in Etymonline),[2][7] and led to the signal light (1883), the flare in a photograph (1867) and the solar flare in astronomy (1937).[2][7] A gradual widening, as of a skirt, is recorded from 1907, and flares are flared trousers.[2][7] In 19th-century slang flare could mean to swagger.[14] In Ireland and many English dialects the verb was used of a candle blazing up.[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1550 – to spread out the hair (obsolete).[2][4]
  • 1579 – of hair, to stream or wave in the wind (obsolete by 1837).[2]
  • 1633 – to display oneself conspicuously (obsolete).[2]
  • 1633 – of a flame, to burn unsteadily and brightly.[2][7]
  • 1644 – of a ship's sides, to bulge outward and upward.[2]
  • 1815 – noun, a dazzling, unsteady light.[2]
  • 1834 – to spread outward, as a bowl or skirt.[2]
  • 1846 – to flare up, to blaze up suddenly; to become angry.[2]
  • 1883 – a signal light or fire.[2][7]
  • 1907 – a gradual widening; later flares, flared trousers.[2]
  • 1935 – of an aircraft, to level off just before landing.[2]
  • 1937 – a solar flare.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To burn with a sudden, bright, unsteady flame: The match flared and went out.[16][3][17]
  2. To break out or grow worse suddenly, often with up: Fighting flared up again along the border.[3][16]
  3. To become suddenly angry, often with up.[3][17]
  4. To spread gradually outward, as the bottom of a skirt or the bell of a trumpet, or to make something do so.[16][17][2]
  5. To stream or flutter in the wind.[17][2]
  6. (aviation) Of an aircraft, to raise the nose and level off just before touching down.[2]

Noun

  1. A sudden, brief burst of bright flame or light.[18][17]
  2. A device that burns with a very bright flame, used as a signal or to light up an area: The stranded sailors fired a flare.[18][17]
  3. A sudden outburst of emotion or activity.[18][9]
  4. (astronomy) A solar flare, a sudden brightening of part of the sun's surface.[17][2]
  5. A gradual widening, as of a skirt, and in the plural, flares, trousers whose legs widen below the knee.[18][2]
  6. (photography) Unwanted light on a film or image caused by reflection inside the lens or camera.[18][2]
  7. An upward and outward curve of a ship's sides.[18][2]

Word family

  • flareback
  • outflare
  • unflared

Usage notes

A separate dialect noun flare, the leaf fat around a pig's kidneys, is of unknown origin and recorded from 1847;[2][9] Merriam-Webster thinks it may be an alteration of fleck,[17] and Wright found it in Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Bedfordshire, London, Wiltshire, Somerset and Cornwall.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b 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)
  16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  18. ^ a b c d e f Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press