ArcaMax

As 2025, the centennial year of "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, comes to a close, let's examine the origins of a term for a signature figure of the 1920s -- "flapper."

A young, independent woman with fringed skirts, bobbed hair and loose stockings, the flapper epitomized the "flaming youth" of the 1920s.

(The lingo of flappers, by the way, added many nifty expressions to our slang: "hotsy-totsy," "pipe down," "razz," "sugar daddy," "swanky," "swell," "party crasher," "wet blanket," "Zowie!,"" for crying out loud!" as well as "ducky," "nifty" and "keen," the last three meaning "good".)

According to the book "Flappers 2 Rappers: American Youth Slang" by Tom Dalzell, "flapper" has two possible origins.

The first source is, well, ducky: "Flapper" was an English dialect term for a young bird, especially a wild duck, just learning to fly by "flapping" its wings. By the late 1800s, "flapper" had come to mean a young girl who, like the young bird, is on the verge of adulthood.

Other linguists trace "flapper" to another old dialectal term -- "flap," meaning "a young, giddy girl."

Thanks to one -- or perhaps both -- of these sources, the term "flapper" was well established before World War I, but with two quite different denotations.

One meaning was general and gentle -- a little girl, think Heidi. The other was specific and spicy -- an immoral young girl in her early teens; think Lolita.

Thus, when free-spirited young women emerged during the 1920s, they weren't rebels without a cause: the word "flapper" was ready and waiting (and, if you buy the duck theory, waiting in the wings).

The dual, pre-1920s meaning of "flapper" was oddly appropriate, for the flapper of the 1920s was part lassie and part sassy.

Several linguists have speculated on various other inspirations for "flapper."

John Brophy and Eric Partridge suggest that the pre-World War I use of "flapper" for a girl arose because her pigtails and braids flapped about when she walked.

Robert Chapman wonders whether someone watching a girl doing the Charleston was reminded of "an unfledged bird flapping its wings." (Funny, but when I watch a girl doing the Charleston, I'm reminded of my appointment with my chiropractor.)

Mary Morris proposes that flappers were so named because they wore galoshes with unfastened buckles that flapped about when they walked.

Some of these explanations have created a big flap, but there's no firm evidence that any of them created "flapper."

========

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate Inc.