word

Flutter

lfsaldenbirch ,

“Flutter” has to do with “fleet” – quick movements as of things on waves or in air.

  • 03.010 There were moths fluttering about,
  • 05.033 Wingless flutters,
  • 09.025 Bilbo was all in a flutter,
  • 12.082 which merely fluttered aside
  • 13.043 fluttering in the draughts.
  • 14.019 something fluttered to his shoulder.
  • 15.004 Then he fluttered his wings
  • 15.013 Before long there was a fluttering of wings,

“flutter, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 26 July 2015.

Flounder

lfsaldenbirch , ,

The OED tells us this one is onomatopoetic from blending such sounds and senses as “flop”, “blunder”, and “flodder”, an obscolete word meaning “flood”.

  • 10.012 in the darkness floundering

“† ˈflodder, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 26 July 2015.

“flounder, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 26 July 2015.

Flicker

lfsaldenbirch , ,

We learn that this word is onomatopoetic, less noisy than “flacker”.  Both have to do with the motion of bird wings, at least in their first meanings.

  • 01.071 the firelight flickered –
  • 07.094 and the fire flickered about them,
  • 08.006 in the little flicker of the flames.
  • 09.039 and the flicker of lights.
  • 12.029 Flickering fires leaped up
  • 13.019 it was tinged with a flickering sparkle
  • 14.003 Suddenly it flickered back to view;
  • 17.050 and each flickered as it fled as if with stinging fire.

“flicker, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 26 July 2015.