Etymologically
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flea

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fle, also flei,[2][3][4] inherited from Old English flēah, also flēa,[5][6][7][8] inherited from Proto-West Germanic *flauh,[1] inherited from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz.[9][10][1] It is cognate with Middle Dutch vlo, Middle Low German vlō, Dutch vlo, Old High German flōh, German Floh and Old Norse fló.[3][7][5][9] Many dictionaries think it probably related to flee, the flea being "the jumping animal";[11][12][13][7][5] Etymonline thinks it more likely from Proto-Indo-European *plou- (“flea”), and Partridge quotes Walshe for a link with Latin pūlex and against one with flee.[9][14] Wiktionary sets up a pre-Germanic form Proto-Indo-European *plóukos, akin to Proto-Indo-European *plus-, comparing pūlex and Sanskrit प्लुषि (plúṣi),[1] and Beekes derives Ancient Greek ψύλλα (psúlla, “flea”) from the same inherited word by metathesis.[15] Ayto likewise traces flea and pūlex to one Indo-European source; the Latin word gave puce, the source of puce.[16] The spelling flea was not established until after 1550.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The small leaping, blood-sucking insect: in the Épinal Glossary,[5] about 700 according to Barnhart,[3] and in the 8th century according to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins.[17] Bosworth–Toller records it glossing Latin pūlex.[8]

Semantic evolution

The insect's smallness made it a type of anything small or contemptible, as in the Wycliffite Bible of 1388.[5] The phrase a flea in one's ear first meant something alarming or exciting, after French avoir la puce à l'oreille, from about 1430 to 1656;[5][2] from 1577 it meant a stinging rebuke that sends one away discomfited,[5][17] perhaps because the telling-off stings like a flea bite.[17] Chaucer's plural was fleen.[9][18] The verb, to rid of fleas, is recorded from about 1600.[9][5] In the 19th century the name spread to the flea beetle (1805) and to small leaping crustaceans such as the water flea and sand flea (1883).[5] Fit as a flea is recorded from 1889,[5] and compounds such as flea-bag, a bed (1839), flea circus (1886) and flea-pit, a shabby cinema (1937), come from the idea of places that harbour fleas.[9][17] In Australian slang of 1950 a flea was an unlicensed taxi.[19]

Timeline

  • c. 700 – Old English flēah, the insect, in the Épinal Glossary.[5][3]
  • before 1300 – Middle English flei.[3]
  • 1388 – figuratively, anything small or contemptible.[5]
  • c. 1430 – a flea in one's ear, something alarming (obsolete by 1656).[5][2]
  • 1577 – a flea in one's ear, a stinging rebuke.[5]
  • c. 1600 – verb, to rid of fleas.[9][5]
  • 1805 – the flea beetle.[5]
  • 1839 – flea-bag, a bed.[9]
  • 1883 – small leaping crustaceans, such as the water flea.[5]
  • 1889 – fit as a flea.[5]
  • 1937 – flea-pit, a shabby cinema.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A small wingless parasitic insect that sucks the blood of mammals and birds and is known for its leaping.[20][12][5]
  2. Any of various small jumping invertebrates, such as the water flea or the flea beetle.[20][5]
  3. a flea in one's ear: a sharp rebuke: The salesman left with a flea in his ear.[20][5]
  4. (obsolete, c. 1430–1656) a flea in one's ear: something alarming or exciting.[5][2]

Verb

  1. To rid an animal of fleas: Remember to flea the cat before the holidays.[12][5]

Word family

  • fleabag
  • fleabane
  • fleabite
  • flea-bitten
  • fleapit
  • fleawort
  • beach flea
  • flea beetle

Usage notes

Dialect forms recorded by Wright include flae and flay in Scotland and the north, and vlea and vlay in the West Country.[21] In Kent and Cornwall a flea was also the fat of pork, or lard, as in flea-rib, the spare-rib of a pig.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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 Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  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 r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ 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 Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  15. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  16. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  17. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  18. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  19. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  20. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  21. ^ 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)