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Origin and history of flake

flake(n.)

"thin flat piece of snow; a particle," early 14c., also flauke, flagge, which is of uncertain origin, possibly from Old English *flacca "flakes of snow," or from cognate Old Norse flak "flat piece," from Proto-Germanic *flakaz (source also of Middle Dutch vlac, Dutch vlak "flat, level," Middle High German vlach, German Flocke "flake"); from PIE root *plak- (1) "to be flat." From late 14c. as "a speck, a spot."

flake(v.)

early 15c., flaken, (of snow) "to fall in flakes," from flake (n.). Transitive meaning "break or peel off in flakes" is from 1620s; intransitive sense of "to come off in flakes" is from 1759. . Related: Flaked; flaking.

also from early 15c.

Entries linking to flake

corn flakes(n.)

also corn-flakes, cornflakes, type of breakfast cereal, 1902, from corn (n.1) + flake (n.); the process of making them was discovered by American food manufacturer W.K. Kellogg in 1894. Earlier corn flakes was an ingredient in brewing (1890s).

flaky(adj.)

1570s, "consisting of flakes," from flake + -y (2). Meaning "eccentric, crazy" first recorded 1959, said to be American English baseball slang, but probably from earlier druggie slang flake "cocaine" (1920s). Flake (n.) "eccentric person" is a 1968 back-formation from it. Related: Flakiness.

The term 'flake' needs explanation. It's an insider's word, used throughout baseball, usually as an adjective; someone is considered 'flaky.' It does not mean anything so crude as 'crazy,' but it's well beyond 'screwball' and far off to the side of 'eccentric.' [New York Times, April 26, 1964]
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bit
"small piece," c. 1200; related Old English bite "act of biting," and bita "piece bitten off," which probably are the source of the modern words meaning "boring-piece of a drill" (the "biting" part, 1590s), "mouthpiece of a horse's bridle" (mid-14c.), and "a piece (of food) bitte
chip
early 15c., "to break off in small pieces" (intransitive, of stone); from Old English forcippian "to pare away by cutting, cut off," verbal form of cipp "small piece of wood" (see chip (n.1)). Transitive meaning "to cut up, cut or trim into small pieces, diminish by cutting away
scrap
[small piece, fragment] late 14c., scrappe, "piece of food remaining after a meal" (usually plural), from Old Norse skrap "scraps; trifles," from skrapa "to scrape, scratch, cut" (see scrape (v.)). Hence, "any remnant or small, detached piece" (1580s), typically negative (not a s
flaw
early 14c., "a flake" (of snow), also in Middle English "a spark of fire; a splinter," from Old Norse flaga "stone slab,..."The close resemblance in sense between flaw and flake is noteworthy" [OED]....
leper
root *lep- (1) "to peel," which also yields words for "something delicate and weak," via the notion of "small shaving, flake...
peel
"to strip off" the skin, bark, or rind from, developed from Old English pilian "to peel, skin, decorticate, strip the skin or ring," and Old French pillier, both from Latin pilare "to strip of hair," from pilus "hair" (see pile (n.3)). Probably also influenced by Latin pellis "sk
form
c. 1200, forme, fourme, "semblance, image, likeness," from Old French forme, fourme, "physical form, appearance; pleasing looks; shape, image; way, manner" (12c.), from Latin forma "form, contour, figure, shape; appearance, looks; a fine form, beauty; an outline, a model, pattern
from
Old English fram, preposition denoting departure or movement away in time or space, from Proto-Germanic *fra "forward, away from" (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German, Gothic fram "from, away," Old Norse fra "from," fram "forward"), from PIE *pro-mo-, suffixed form of *pro
eccentric
early 15c., "eccentric circle or orbit," originally a term in Ptolemaic astronomy, "circle or orbit not having the Earth precisely at its center," from French eccentrique and directly from Medieval Latin eccentricus (noun and adjective), from Greek ekkentros "out of the center" (
oh
interjection expressing various emotions (fear, surprise, pain, invocation, gladness, admiration, etc.), 1530s, from Middle English o, from Old French ô, oh or directly from Latin o, oh; a common Indo-European interjection (compare Greek ō; Old Church Slavonic and Lithuanian o; I

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