English
flitter
Flitter comes from Middle English flytteren.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flytteren
- Englishearliest quotation 2003flitter
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500flytteren
- Englishearliest quotation 2003flitter
Earliest quotation: 2003, Rudy Gray, D'n'd: “How she remembered the gray-feathered titmouse flittering about as…”
Formed from flit + -er
Proto-Indo-European *plewd- ‘to flow’
Proto-Germanic *flutjaną ‘to move, flutter’
Old Norse flytja ‘to move’
Middle English flitten
English flit
Every English word from Middle English flytteren
Today it means
verb To scatter in pieces.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English flytteren / flitter