flit

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English flitten, also flutten,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old Norse flytja (“to carry, convey, remove”),^{[3][4][5][6][7]} from the weak grade of fljóta (“to float, flow”),^[3][6][8][9] and so related to fleet.^[3][9] It is matched by Swedish flytta and Danish flytte.^[3][10] Etymonline carries it back through Proto-Germanic *flutjaną to an extended form of Proto-Indo-European *pleu- (“to flow”).^[4][1][5] Barnhart is more cautious and calls the origin uncertain, perhaps Scandinavian.^[11] Johnson derived it directly from the English verb fleet, or from a Danish word for "to remove".^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move something to another place, to transport it: about 1175, in the Ormulum, which also has the intransitive sense, to shift one's position, to depart.^[3][2] Barnhart dates flutten to before 1200,^[11] Etymonline to about 1200,^[4] and Merriam-Webster to the 13th century.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant to carry or be carried away, and could also mean to change or alter something, even to pervert the law (about 1175 to 1500).^[3] Chaucer's and Gower's uses are of moving, transferring, and changing or varying.^[14] The sense now dominant, passing lightly and swiftly, Etymonline dates to the early 15th century,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford likewise to late Middle English, with the flight of a bird or bat from the mid 16th century and the passing of time from the late 16th.^[8] An older sense survived in the north: "to change one's residence" is recorded from 1504, in a letter saying "I will flitt at this next Mighelmas",^[3][15] and Henry Best's farming book of 1641 has "Munday flitte, Neaver sitte".^[4] Johnson (1755) noted that in Scotland it was still used for removing at quarter-day.^[12] The English Dialect Dictionary found it in general dialect use in Scotland, Ireland and the northern and midland counties.^[16] The noun for a removal is recorded from 1835, and with it the phrase do a flit, to decamp, especially to avoid a creditor.^[3][8] The noun for a light movement followed in 1873,^[3] and a US slang sense for an unmasculine or gay man in 1934.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – to remove or transport; to change or pervert; intransitive, to depart.^[3]
• c. 1386 – to change from one state to another, to shift about (obsolete by 1816).^[3]
• early 15th century – to move lightly and swiftly.^[4][8]
• 1504 – to move house.^[3]
• c. 1523 – to shift a tethered animal to fresh grass.^[3]
• mid 16th century – of a bird or bat, to fly lightly.^[8]
• 1835 – noun, a removal, a secret departure.^[3][4]
• 1873 – noun, a light movement, a flutter.^[3]
• 1923 – Flit, the proprietary name of an insecticide.^[3]
• 1934 – noun, in US slang, an unmasculine or gay man.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move lightly and swiftly; to dart or skim: Swallows flitted over the pond at dusk.^[17][13][5]
2. To fly quickly or make short flights; to flutter.^[17][8][7]
3. To pass quickly from one place, subject or condition to another: Her attention flitted from one speaker to the next.^[13][5]
4. Of time or a thought, to pass quickly.^[17][7]
5. (Scottish and northern English) To move house.^[17][3][13]
6. (British, informal) To leave hurriedly and secretly to avoid obligations; also, to elope.^[17]
7. (chiefly Scottish and northern English) To move something to another place; especially, to shift a tethered animal to fresh grazing.^[3][8]
8. (obsolete, c. 1386–1816) To change in state or direction; to shift about.^[3][8]
9. (obsolete, c. 1175–1500) To alter or turn aside; to pervert the law.^[3][8]

Noun

1. A quick, light movement; a flutter.^[5][13][3]
2. (British, informal) A hurried and stealthy departure, as in do a flit and moonlight flit.^[17][8][3]
3. (informal) An empty-headed, silly person.^[5]
4. (US slang, offensive) A gay man.^[17][13][3]
5. Flit: the proprietary name of an insecticide.^[3][8][13]

Word family

• flitter
• flittingly

Related words

• fleet
• float
• flittermouse

Usage notes

An obsolete poetic adjective flit, swift, nimble or fleeting, is a separate formation: a variant of the adjective fleet, with its form influenced by this verb.^[3][8][13] Johnson quotes it from the Faerie Queene,^[12] and the Shorter Oxford dates it from the late 16th to the mid 17th century.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ a b c 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 c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins