Flop
This
week we’ll be celebrating the birthday of Olympic high jumper, Dick Fosbury by
looking into the word flop. Fosbury made history (& a
big splash) in the 1968 Olympics by earning the gold medal with his unconventional
high jump method, known ever since as the Fosbury Flop.
Flop’s earliest appearance in English occurred centuries before Dick
Fosbury, about the year 1600. It meant to
flap, & appears to have been derived from the word flap, which came to
English two hundred years earlier.
In
1823 flop
established itself as a noun, so that when something flopped, the noise
involved could be labeled a flop.
The
meaning to fall or drop heavily was
added to flop’s arsenal of meaning in 1836.
By
1893 flop
picked up the meaning a failure.
In
1858, flop’s adjective cousin, floppy was born.
By
1836 flop
gave birth to the more jocular term, flopperoo.
Another
meaning, complete failure, came about
in 1893.
In
1900 the term flip-flop showed up, meaning a complete change in direction.
In
1902, Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter
Rabbit was published, featuring the risk-taking antics of Peter & the
rule-following ways of his good little siblings, Cottontail, Mopsy and Flopsy.
The
word
flub, derived from flop, joined us in 1920, meaning a botch or bungle.
The
sound of plastic sandals was responsible for the 1970s term, flip-flop.
Interestingly, the term flip-flap had been used to echo that
same sound since 1520.
This
week, to celebrate Dick Fosbury’s 68th birthday, please spend a
little time appreciating the word flop:
-take a stroll in plastic sandals
-watch a truly bad movie or play
-change your opinion
-at the end of a long day, fall or drop heavily into bed
-or leave a comment right here about all this floppishness
I love it that "flopperoo" is an actual word. I love your suggestions. I think maybe we need a National Flop Day, when we can watch DVDs of "Ishtar" and that remake of the Mrs. Peel/Mr. Steed "Avengers" in our plastic footwear while falling heavily on the couch. Flopperoo!
ReplyDeleteAnd Flopperoo back to you, Anne! I'm all for National Flop Day.
ReplyDeleteNational Flop Day. Great idea! As was the backwards high jump! How funny that flip-flops used to be flip-flaps oh so many,many years ago. And that it took that long to return. I guess someone had to invent plastic first. Flopperoo!
ReplyDeleteHi Christine - thanks for joining me in flop-consideration.
ReplyDeleteI think I'll be a renegade and start calling flip-flops "flip-flaps." I think that moniker suits them better.
ReplyDelete