Flibbertigibbet
Definition
Noun
1. A chattering or flighty person, usually a young girl.
2. A prattling or proud gossip.
Her granddaughter was quite a flibbertigibbet, never settling into one thing for long but always telling anyone who would listen about the most inconsequential things.
Word Origin
An example of onomatopoeia, its predecessor, the Middle English flepergebet (gossip or chatterer), was meant to represent meaningless chatter.
It has been used by such esteemed writers as Shakespeare (King Lear), Sir Walter Scott (Kenilworth), and Oscar Hammerstein (lyrics for How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, in The Sound of Music), in the nineteenth century, it became synonymous with the hobgoblin Puck.
Synonyms
coquette, chatterbox, nitwit, scatterbrain, ditz
Antonyms
When used to describe a person: staid, solemn, sober, earnest, scholarly
