flurry

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Many dictionaries derive it from English flurr (“to scatter, fly up with a whirr”) + -y,^{[4][5][6][7][8]} probably influenced by hurry;^{[6][7][9][10]} the verb flurr is recorded from 1661 and is itself perhaps imitative.^[2][7] Barnhart and Etymonline note an earlier Middle English flouren (“to sprinkle, as with flour”), recorded before 1399, which may be the source of flurr, though more than 175 years separate the two records.^[4][11] The OED calls the noun perhaps onomatopoeic, suggested by flaw, hurry and the like,^[2] and Weekley also hears flutter in it.^[12] Dictionary.com takes it as a blend of flutter and hurry,^[3] and Partridge, who thinks it probably imitative, also suggests a blend of fluster and hurry.^[13] Skeat compared Swedish and Norwegian dialect words for disordered hair.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sudden light fall of snow, sometimes of hail or rain, with wind: 1686, in American English, according to Barnhart and Merriam-Webster.^[4][5] The OED's first record is from 1698, in Fryer's account of the East Indies and Persia, for a sudden gust or squall,^[2][12] and Etymonline dates the sense "gust, squall" to the 1690s.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a sudden commotion or nervous agitation is recorded from 1710.^[2][4][11] Johnson (1755) gave both meanings, a gust of wind, quoting a boat overset by a sudden flurry in Gulliver's Travels, and a hurry or violent commotion.^[15] The use for a sharp sudden shower, especially of snow, is chiefly American: the OED has it from 1828, in Webster's dictionary,^[2] and Etymonline has a sudden snow squall from 1818, in Canadian English.^[11] Whalers used it from 1823 for the death throes of a harpooned whale.^[2][16] From 1876 it was also used for a sudden burst of trading on the stock market.^[2][11] The verb, to confuse or agitate by haste or noise, is formed from the noun and recorded from before 1757,^[2][4] or 1749 in Merriam-Webster and Etymonline;^[5][11] its use for snow falling in sudden gusty showers dates from 1883 in the OED and Barnhart,^[2][4] but from 1865 in Etymonline.^[11]

Timeline

• 1686 – in American English, a sudden light fall of snow with wind.^[4][5]
• 1698 – a sudden gust or squall of wind.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1690s.^[11]
• 1710 – a sudden commotion or agitation.^[2][4][11]
• before 1757 – verb, to confuse or fluster.^[2][4] Merriam-Webster and Etymonline date the verb to 1749.^[5][11]
• 1823 – the death throes of a whale, in Cooper's The Pilot.^[2]
• 1828 – chiefly in American use, a sharp sudden shower.^[2] Etymonline dates a snow squall to 1818, in Canadian English.^[11]
• 1876 – a sudden burst of activity on the stock market.^[2][11]
• 1883 – verb, of snow, to fall in sudden gusty showers.^[2][4] Etymonline dates this use to 1865.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light, brief fall of snow or a short shower of rain, usually with a gust of wind: A few flurries are expected overnight.^[16][5][2]
2. A sudden, short commotion of the air; a gust or squall.^[5][2][16]
3. A sudden burst of activity or excitement; nervous agitation or bustle: There was a flurry of preparation before the guests arrived.^[16][5][2]
4. A sudden occurrence of many things at once: a flurry of complaints.^[5]
5. A sudden, brief rise or fall in prices or burst of trading on the stock exchange.^[16][5][2]
6. The death spasms of a harpooned whale.^[16][5][2]

Verb

1. To confuse, agitate or fluster someone: The sudden questions flurried the young witness.^[16][5][2]
2. To move or act in a flurry; to bustle.^[5]
3. Of snow, to fall in sudden gusty showers.^[2][11]

Word family

• flurriedly

Related words

• hurry
• flutter
• fluster
• scurry
• flaw

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b 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 Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins