Hi often do you hear or use the phrase ‘to be flip’?
Thanks,
Torsten
TOEIC listening, question-response: Did you remember to call Ms. Epstein?
Could it be ‘to be flippant?’
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To be frank this is the first time, I have heard about it. I would appreciate if you provided what it means.
I thought I head this phrase in an episode of one of the most popular American TV series. You can also google “I’m not being flip” to read quite a number of examples.
TOEIC listening, question-response: When are you going to submit your cost estimates?
I googled that phrase and it looks like the meaning is that of flippant. The first few results are full of slang and errors, so I would assume those uses of flip (they have the flippant meaning) are errors too. This one is also the meaning flippant, but the use of flip is a joke:
“Nader said state law in New Mexico, where Gore won by fewer than 500 votes, provides for a coin toss to resolve elections that end in a dead heat. “So when I mention this, I’m not being flip,” he said to laughter.”
He’s substituting flip for flippant referring to the verb for to flip a coin (toss it head over heal).
I checked about the first 15 google hits, and in all the rest of them the use of flip is an error as well with the speaker substituting flip for flippant. Perhaps these people just weren’t that familiar with the word flippant and reanalyzed the phrase to the more familiar verb ‘flip’.
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Maybe you simply aren’t familiar with the adjective “flip”, OxfordBlues. lol
I am familiar with “flip” (meaning flippant), and although I wouldn’t say it’s something you’re likely to hear frequently, I have heard people use it.
One context in which “be flip” might be used, for example, would be a parent scolding a child. (“Don’t be flip, young man!”).
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the adjective “flip” (meaning flippant) has been in use for quite some time now (since 1823).
[color=darkblue]_______________________________________
[size=75]“Before you can hit the jackpot, you have to put a coin in the machine.” ~ Flip Wilson[/size]
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If you’re saying Webster’s defining is as an adjective meaning flippant, then that seems to be right in line with it being a shortened form.
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According to the OED, it comes from the verb:
Flip, a.(1)
orig. dial. and U.S.
(flIp) [f. flip v. (sense 5).]
a. s.w. dial. (see quots.). Hence in standard use: glib, flippant. b. U.S. Voluble.
1847 Halliwell, Flip+(3) Nimble; flippant. Devon. 1863 W. Barnes Dorset Dial. 55 Flip, very kindly or friendly in talking. 1888 Elworthy W. Somerset Wordbk., Flip, pliant, flexible, same as Limber. 1893 Columbus (Ohio) Disp. 13 Apr., She was disposed to be flip with her tongue. 1924 Drama Mag. (Chicago) Feb. 177/2 Doris is flip, exaggerated, and stagey—off the stage. 1935 Time 24 June 38/2 He is entirely too flip and smart-alecky. 1944 Auden For Time Being (1945) 110 Every martyrdom an occasion for flip cracks and sententious oratory. 1947 ‘N. Shute’ Chequer Board x. 290 He coloured hotly, and wished desperately for eloquence that he might make some flip and smart rejoinder, but no inspiration came. 1958 R. Williams in N. Mackenzie Conviction 78 How can anyone+use these new flip words for any attachment to learning or the arts? 1963 Listener 21 Mar. 529/2, I find it difficult to reconcile the authorship of the flip, alert opening scenes with the awful feyness of what followed. 1969 N. Cohn AWopBopaLooBop (1970) xii. 104 The musicians fitted themselves sensibly to the situation—they kept things light and flip and sexy. 1970 Times 9 May 9/5 The word ‘schizophrenia’ is flung about today with flip facility.
Flip, v.
- intr. To move with a flip or jerk; to step lightly and nimbly.
1863 Kingsley Water Bab. 105 He+began flirting and flipping up and down and singing. 1881 Blackmore Christowell iv, Still there were lapses in the vigilance of the brook, where a lady, with her skirts up, might flip through. 1886 Science VII. 263 When the water had disappeared, eight mackerel were found flipping about the deck.
Well, the OED is certainly not being flip!
That’s why I want to marry the OED.
it is a sexy rascal isn’t it?
I looked it up in the dictionary, “flip” can be a verb, noun and can be an adjective. “flip” means “glib/flippant” when we use it as an adjective.