Emily Velasco

The middle English word for bat was bakke, which seems to have meant "flapper."

The old Swedish and old Dutch terms for bat meant "night flapper." The old Norse word for bat meant "leather flapper."

We should go back to calling them flappers

Jul 13 at 11:04pmWeb
Show threadEmily VelascoJul 13
According to the online etymological dictionary, bakke may have mutated to bat through confusion with the Latin blatta, meaning moth
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Jul 14
@MLE_online I didn't know there was an online etymological dictionary! Thanks! I was just thinking about "goggle" and "ogle", whether they had a shared origin.
Show threadEmily VelascoJul 14
@anne_twain i love the online etymological dictionary. I'm always using it to look up words
Show thread.vad//hakara🧭Jul 13
@MLE_online They do be flappin
Show threadEmily VelascoJul 13
@vadhakara they are maybe the flappiest creatures in all the animal kingdom
Show thread.vad//hakara🧭Jul 14
@MLE_online Manta rays are a close second imo
Show threadJonathan HendryJul 13

@MLE_online

Flappy Bird was actually a bat game.

Show threadChipJul 13
@MLE_online I’m partial to “fledermaus” myself.
Show threadDavide BucciJul 14
@MLE_online my favourite terms for bats are the French “chauve-souris” that literally means “bald mouse” and the delightful Piedmontese language “rata voloira” that translates as “flying rat”. The Italian “pipistrello” sounds fun, but does not suggest anything in particular (apart from the bat itself, of course).
Show threadEmily VelascoJul 14
@davbucci Flying rat is perfect. I wonder why bald mouse. Because its wings don't have fur?
Show threadDavide BucciJul 14
@MLE_online I think so, too.
Show threadSteve has ☕️ for brainsJul 15
@MLE_online the dark figure descends…"I'm Flapperman"