Where did the term "flake" come from?

[BPH]

I was walking home from school yesterday and I just started to wonder where the term "to flake" comes from?

So I was hoping somebody here could tell me.

 

[Bible_Belt]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flake

Origin:1350–1400; (noun) Middle English; akin to Old English flac- in flacox flying (said of arrows), Old Norse flakka to rove, wander, Middle Dutch vlacken to flutter;

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:flake

there is a Norwegian word flak which means torn piece

...the word flectus( curved) is a cognate of flake.

I think a lot of very old words started out in an onomatopoetic sense - the word sounds like what it describes. An arrow flying through the air makes a 'ffffffff' sound. The "lak" is probably the arrow hitting something.

I'm also guessing all of this is also the origin of the last name of Baltimore's NFL quarterback: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Flacco

 

[BPH]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flake

Origin:1350–1400; (noun) Middle English; akin to Old English flac- in flacox flying (said of arrows), Old Norse flakka to rove, wander, Middle Dutch vlacken to flutter;

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:flake

there is a Norwegian word flak which means torn piece

...the word flectus( curved) is a cognate of flake.

I think a lot of very old words started out in an onomatopoetic sense - the word sounds like what it describes. An arrow flying through the air makes a 'ffffffff' sound. The "lak" is probably the arrow hitting something.

I'm also guessing all of this is also the origin of the last name of Baltimore's NFL quarterback: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Flacco

Sorry man, I meant the DJ term for "flake", as in to blow off or stand up.

 

[Zerro]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flake

Origin:1350–1400; (noun) Middle English; akin to Old English flac- in flacox flying (said of arrows), Old Norse flakka to rove, wander, Middle Dutch vlacken to flutter;

There's your answer. If a chick flakes it means that her interest has wandered away from you.

 

[Deep Dish]

I always thought it was dandruff—just kidding.

I think what BPH was asking is who took the already existing word and applied it to dating, thus inventing a new usage of terminology. PUA terms originated from Usenet newsgroup discussions during the mid to late 1990's, so the origins were probably somewhere in there. Before then, there was no cultural terminology of “flaking” because there was no Internet for meta-game discussions—people were simply “stood up” or “cancelled.”

 

[Juan Don]

probably regional slang. like "that's fresh" or saying pop instead of soda

 

[Zerro]

I remember it being used in movies during the early '90s, seemed to just be another word for "unreliable" then.

 

[ALPHAROMEO]

flake

flacco SPANISH for thin meagre weak

to flake to be weak to lose enthusiasm