flipper

Etymology

It is formed from English flip + -er,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} as an agent noun from the verb.^[3][4] The verb, recorded from the 1590s in the sense "to fillip, toss with the thumb", is imitative, or perhaps a thinned form of flap or a contraction of fillip.^[3] The verb flipper was formed from the noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A flat limb of an aquatic animal, used for swimming: 1775, in B. Penrose's account of the last expedition to Port Egmont.^[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1822,^[3][5] Dictionary.com to 1815–25.^[7] Green's Dictionary of Slang has flippers for legs already in 1772, in Bridges's Burlesque Homer.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the limb of a seal or turtle the word was applied, in slang, to the human hand or arm: from 1812 in Green's Dictionary of Slang,^[8] 1821 in the OED and 1836 in Etymonline.^[2][3] In New England and New Zealand a flipper was a pancake or fritter, from 1841, in a whaling narrative,^[2][8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records the word for a utensil for turning pancakes and for a steam-driven lever for moving lumber.^[5] The 20th century added the rubber fin worn for swimming and diving (1937 in the OED, 1945 in Etymonline),^[2][3] the lever of a pinball machine (1947), the cricketer's wrist-spun delivery (1959) and a person who buys property to resell it quickly at a profit (1979).^[2] The verb, to move or swim with flippers, is recorded from 1829.^[2]

Timeline

• 1775 – a flat limb of an aquatic animal, used for swimming.^[2]
• 1821 – colloquial, a hand or arm.^[2] Green's Dictionary of Slang has it from 1812.^[8]
• 1829 – verb, to move or swim by means of flippers.^[2]
• 1841 – a pancake or fritter, in New England and New Zealand.^[2][8]
• 1894 – in the theatre, a panel of scenery that extends the main scene.^[2]
• 1937 – a rubber shoe with a paddle-like front, worn for swimming and diving.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1945.^[3]
• 1947 – a lever in a pinball machine.^[2]
• 1959 – in cricket, a ball flicked from the fingertips by a wrist-spin bowler.^[2]
• 1979 – a person who resells property or another asset quickly at a profit.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A broad, flat limb adapted for swimming, as in seals, whales, penguins and sea turtles.^[5][9][2]
2. A flat rubber shoe with a paddle-like front, worn for swimming or skin diving; a fin: She pulled on her mask and flippers.^[5][9][2]
3. (slang) The hand or arm: Give us your flipper, old friend.^[5][2][8]
4. A lever in a pinball machine, worked by the player to send the ball back up the table.^[2]
5. (cricket) A ball given backspin by a wrist-spin bowler, flicked from the fingertips.^[2][9]
6. A person who buys property or another asset and quickly sells it on at a profit.^[2]
7. (regional) A pancake or fritter.^[2][8][5]

Verb

1. To move or swim by means of flippers.^[2][5]
2. To touch or move something with flippers, or as if with flippers.^[2][5]

Related words

• flip

Usage notes

In 19th-century Yorkshire dialect flipper was also a verb meaning to cry or whimper, which Wright compared with a Swedish dialect word, and in Shetland and Cheshire one meaning to flutter or swing.^[10]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
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 Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ 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)