Etymologically
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flaw

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /flɔː/[1]
  • US: /flɔ/, /flɑ/[1]

flaw1 defect, crack

Etymology

The defect is inherited from Middle English flaue, also flai and flage, a flake or splinter,[2][3] probably borrowed from Old Norse flaga (“slab of stone”).[4][5][6][7][8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Swedish flaga (“flake, crack”),[3][9] and Barnhart also Icelandic flag (“spot where turf is cut out”) and Old Norse flá (“to skin”), whose English relative is flay.[3] The OED thinks the Old Norse word may have had wider senses from the Germanic root Proto-Germanic *flah-, parallel to the root of flake, and notes how closely flaw and flake resemble each other in sense; it allows that an Old English form may also have existed.[4] Orel sets up Proto-Germanic *flaʒōn for the slab word.[10] Etymonline notes that Old English had floh (in the phrase “floh stanes”), but that the Middle English form points to a Scandinavian source.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flake of snow: about 1325, in a gloss on Walter de Bibbesworth's French treatise, where a flay of snow translates the French.[4][2][3] Middle English also used the word for a scale of metal, a splinter of bone and, in flawe of fir, a spark.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "defect, fault" is recorded from the 1580s, first of character and other immaterial things (1586), then of material things (1604), probably by way of the notion of a fragment broken off.[5][4] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates the "defect" sense to the late 15th century.[11] A crack or fissure is recorded from the early 17th century,[4] and an invalidating defect in a legal document, title or pedigree from about 1616.[4] Merriam-Webster takes Shakespeare's line in King Lear, this heart shall break into a hundred thousand flaws, as the old sense "fragment",[9] while Johnson (1755) quoted it for "a crack or breach".[12] The verb, to crack or mar, is recorded from 1623,[4] although Etymonline finds it implied in flawed in the early 15th century.[5] In Scotland and northern England dialect flaw kept the senses of a thin layer of turf cut for fuel and a flake;[13][4] the OED also has a slang verb, to make drunk (1673–1725).[4][14]

Timeline

  • c. 1325 – a flake of snow.[4][2]
  • 1576 – a slab or layer of stone (obsolete).[4]
  • 1586 – a defect or fault in something immaterial.[4]
  • 1604 – a defect in a material thing.[4]
  • 1607 – a fragment.[4]
  • c. 1616 – an invalidating defect in a legal document.[4]
  • 1623 – verb, to mar or impair.[4]
  • 1626 – a crack or fissure.[4]
  • 1665 – verb, to make a crack in.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An imperfection or blemish that spoils something: a flaw in the glass.[7][9][4]
  2. A weakness or fault in a character, argument or plan: His theory has one fatal flaw.[9][4]
  3. A crack or fissure.[7][9][4]
  4. (law) A defect that makes a document or proceeding invalid.[7][4]
  5. (obsolete) A flake or fragment.[9][4]

Verb

  1. To make or become cracked, imperfect or defective.[7][9][4]

Word family

  • flawed
  • flawless
  • flawlessly
  • flawlessness
  • tragic flaw

flaw2 gust of wind

Etymology

The gust of wind is probably of Scandinavian origin,[9][3][15] perhaps borrowed from Old Norse flaga (“sudden attack, squall”).[16][17][18] It is related to Norwegian flaga (“gust, squall”) and Swedish flaga (“gust of wind”),[9][19][3] and to Middle Low German vlāge (“gust, attack”), Middle Dutch vlāghe and Dutch vlaag (“gust”).[3][9][17] The Shorter Oxford and Hoad take it instead from the Middle Low German or Middle Dutch word,[6][8] and the OED, which calls it of uncertain origin, suggests an unrecorded Old English form, the same as the Low German and Dutch words.[4] Köbler and Orel set up Proto-Germanic *flagō, and Orel derives it from the verb behind flay.[18][10] The first sense may have been "stroke":[4][8] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster compare Lithuanian plakti (“to beat”) and Latin plangō (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“to beat, strike”),[3][9][15] the root of plague.[15] Weekley thought it was apparently the same word as the defect.[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sudden burst or squall of wind: 1513, in Gavin Douglas's Scots translation of Virgil's Aeneid.[4][9][3] Caxton had already used flaw in 1481 to render Middle French fléau (“scourge”).[4]

Semantic evolution

From 1596, in Spenser, the word was also used figuratively of a sudden onset, a burst of passion or an uproar, a sense that died out in the late 17th century.[4][6] A short spell of rough weather, with gusts of wind and rain or snow, is recorded from 1791,[4][6] and the verb, of the wind, to blow in gusts, from 1806.[4][6] In the 19th century the noun was still in dialect use in Scotland, Ireland, Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall, as in Scott's The Antiquary (1816).[13]

Timeline

  • 1481 – in Caxton, rendering French fléau, scourge.[4]
  • 1513 – a sudden gust or squall of wind.[4][9]
  • 1596 – a sudden onset or burst of passion (obsolete by 1676).[4]
  • 1791 – a short spell of rough weather.[4]
  • 1806 – verb, of the wind, to blow in gusts.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sudden gust or squall of wind, sometimes with rain or snow.[9][4][6]
  2. A short spell of stormy weather.[9][4]
  3. (obsolete, 1596–1676) A sudden outburst of feeling, or a sudden tumult.[9][4]

Verb

  1. (rare) Of the wind, to blow in gusts.[4][6]

Word family

  • flawy

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ 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 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  15. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  16. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  17. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  18. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  19. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  20. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray