Flat as a Flitter
Not so recently I heard someone describing a pancake's flatness. It was described as being flat as a flitter. I am assuming that that is pretty darn flat. I looked up flitter and it seems to be synonomous with flicker or flutter. Somehow that does not seem to fit the usage here. Does anyone know what a flitter is and exactly how flat is it?
FYI I am right in the middle of trying to close out this semester and my educational career, so my posts will be short and sparse in the coming days. But please come back I have some real good stuff to post here. And reading and studying linguistics (one of my favorite things) has allowed me to appreciate my mother language even more. See y'all in a little bit.
posted by Pecheur @ 6:02 PM
84 comments
84 Comments:
Remember Sugar, one of the quaint aspects of Southerners is that sometimes we just make up our own sayins. It may not be an expression passed down thru the years, it may be something thought up just then.
I never heard of that saying, and it doesn't seem "quite right" so I'm thinking it was spur of the moment.
Good luck with school!
I've heard that expression all my life, so maybe it's just an Alabama saying. But, unfortunately, even I don't know what a flitter is.
You are right about the neologism aspect.
Maybe we can find someone who knows.
Flitter
1. v. i. To flutter.
2. v. t. To flutter; to move quickly; as, to flitter the cards.
3. v. i. A rag; a tatter; a small piece or fragment.
4. move back and forth very rapidly; "the candle flickered"
ah fount this cher thang on ma puter calt a "dicsunairy", anywho I'ma thinkin jus mebe numer thre mait be the dad burned fritter we'sa ala'tim herin bout how its so flat n'all.
Scarlett, you are right.
KC thanks for the entry.
Tish of Tex. Thanks for stopping by. That is a funny expression, I am thinking about doing a post on phrases related to extracting waste material. I'll add yours to the list.
I believe they meant "flat as a fritter." I've heard that term used to decribe a lady's lack of ... upper body.
Saying a pancake is flatter than a fritter is just plain redundant.
-NC
It's "flat as a flivver" - that is an old rusting Model-T or A with 4 flat tires, such as might be encountered on a farm.
-drl
"Flat as a flitter" is indeed the saying, not "flat as a fritter" although that would on the surface seem to make more sense. I've heard this idiom all my life from my mother who was born and raised in north Georgia. I'm also seeking the meaning of "flitter" in this context, but so far, no luck. Possibly KC's fragment/rag/tatter is close to the mark.
I heard "Flitter" a few days ago when my Arkansas born and raised GREAT Uncle ... who is 87 years old was telling me about a saying his mom (my great grandma) had in Northern Arkansas over 60 years ago ... something about politicians always promisin' "honey ponds and flitter trees".
My great Uncle told me that a flitter was a pancake.
Research shows a flitter to be a kind of flat noodle, with a taste akin to a dumpling and used sort of like one. Describing something flat, thrn became flat as a flitter. Flitters, a type of really flat noodle type food was cut into diamond shapes for the most part. In texas, nice folks said flat as a flitter, dry old cowpokes said flat as piss on a plank.
My mother, a native Texan, has used this phrase. My theory is that it is related to the phrase "flat as a bat". I suspect that it's an abbreviated form of "flat as a flittermouse", or "bat". Just a thought, as I have no external support for this proposition.
My Gran Gran used to say that all the time. But she had a million Southern-isms. Fatter than a hog on a floored pen, among others. My Mama told us that a flitter was like a ho-cake or johnny cake.
Well here in the good ole state of Ky a flitter is a slang term for vagina... So it's as flat as a vag...
I grew up in West Virginia and now live in New York City. A flitter is a saying for a homemade bread...sort of looks like a pancake. Here is the recipe:
4 cups of flour
2 cups of water.
Mix the flour and the water. Then, fry like a pancake until cooked thoroughly. Enjoy it.
You can add beans, corn, etc to it.
Enjoy!!! hahahhaha.
thanks everyone to the contribution of understanding this phrase.
DARE (DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN REGIONAL ENGLISH) shows "flitter," variant of "fritter", meaning
fritter or flapjack, and "flat as a flitter" = "very flat."
"Flat as a flitter" has examples in DARE from 1906 and later and DARE
says "flitter" = "flapjack" is "chiefly South Midland".
(from the American Dialect Society List Serve)
I believe a flitter was a potato pancake
Pancake
My grandfather and father (Central Arkansas) used it all the time. I add "Flatter 'n a flitter."
LS, Denver
Very old dictionary defines it as a rag (such as used in cleaning) that has become thread-bare The Webster New Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language, based on Noah Webster -- unabridged edition printed in 1956 -- defines it as a noun meaning a rag; a tatter.
My mother, who grew up in south Alabama - Conecuh County - used that saying all her life. It's so nice to stumble upon this conversation!
flit·ter:[flit-er] (Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.)
a fritter or pancake.
Origin:
apparently by dissimilation from fritter2
KY at Russell Springs, Jamestown and Union Chapel, Flitter used by all generations of my family means indeed Pancake, or Johnny Cake, which is a huge biscuit dumped into a Iron Skillet like you would bake a regular biscuit.
Flitter seems to be a corruption of fritter.
My grandmother was born in 1896 and I remember her saying "Flat as a flitter". Trust me she didn't know what a fritter was. LOL
a flitter according to my great grandma in Arkansas was a kind of pancake made from corn meal "politicians are always promisin' flitter trees & honey ponds" quote from my great grandma Clara Johnson Fallin of Corning, Arkansas
I've been usin' this expression all my life, and have no clue where I first heard it, but thanks to some of the posts on here, I think I may be satisfied as to it's origin.
When I Googled "Flitter Bread," a bunch of receipts came up with photos of pancake-like things that resemble my grandfather's (from Bossier parish, Louisiana) flapjacks. The majority of the recipes call for only self-risin' flour and water: poor folks food.
Interestingly, flapjacks are typically thicker than pancakes, but still relatively flat compared to most things.
I think this origin makes the most sense.
Im from and live in KENTUCKY My grandma and my whole entire family calls vagina a flitter you never here us say anything besides flitter when referring to vagina or pu..y we make jokes all the time saying flatter then a flitter I only thought my family used that word and saying lol
If you are talking about biscuits, have you heard the description "cathead biscuits"?
definately a southern saying lol The meaning of flitter is move quickly, often used to describe a pouncing kitten lying flat as a flitter ears back flat to ground ready to attack woukd be flat as a flitter 🐾
It is indeed a poor man's pancake. I am from southern West Virginia and I have been eating and cooking flitters most of my life. it is essentially like making biscuits on the stove top but instead of making dough you make a batter that is similar to pancake batter. I have never put syrup on them but they are delicious with homemade blackberry jam.
Uuuummmm........no.
Born and raised Kentucky girl and I've never heard this version. Flat as a "vag" doesn't even make sense.
Fiddle de dee Scarlet, we've been using that expression here in Alabama since way before the Civil War and I've heard it used in Tennessee as well as Florida. Before now, I never questioned its reference or validity, but today the query brought me here. I would venture to guess that it is a very old expression born in the south-eastern United States, like "I'll swanee" (pronounced 'swunee'), "madder than a wet hen", "rode hard and put up wet", "drunk as Cooter Brown", "happy as a dead pig in the sunshine", "Bless his/her heart", etc., etc.
It's just that we like to "paint the story" in our phrases.
God love ya. I've heard all of those expressions all my life. Roll Tide, Roll!
Bama
I am a Georgia girl and I've been saying flat as a flitter my whole life so I know it is not just an Alabama thing
I am a Georgia girl and I've been saying flat as a flitter my whole life so I know it is not just an Alabama thing. It means as a pancake to me. Don't know where the saying came from.
Okay, y'all flitter it another name for pee. As we all know, when fluid lands on a flat surface, it spreads out far and wide and thus would be VERY FLAT. I would not have known this unless I had hear people (particually women) saying they had to flitter and would head to the bathroom. When I worked in a hospital I was asked to bring a mop and pail and clean up the flitter (a puddle of urine), which is the very first time I had ever hear this, and that was back in the 80's. I hope this answers everybodies questions.
It is "flivver" not "flitter." Refers to a dead old car.
It is "flivver" not "flitter." Refers to a dead old car.
In the NC home I grew up in, a Flitter was biscuit dough fried like a pancake, as many previous posters have said. I never saw it made and, regretfully, am not sure that it isn't as simple as flour and water, but I believe that could very well be true.
We were not exactly poor in the sense that we were never hungry and not sure where the next meal was coming from, but both my parents grew up during the depression. My dad was a southern farm boy and my mother was a city girl who learned to cook from my dad's mother, so our meals were farm frugal which meant that we filled up on bread. I'm guessing thats why every mean I had as a child whether in my house or my friends had gravy and bread. One of my favorite breakfast "gravies" wasn't really a gravy. On those rare Sundays when the breakfast meat was country ham, we had "red-eye" gravy, which was nothing more than the left over coffee poured into the pan my Mother cooked the country ham in. I have no idea how much of that stuff I "sopped up" in either a fritter or a biscuit for breakfast.
I've heard it said it for 68 years.its a southern thing but it doesn't mean old dead car or a pancake. Ever see the cartoon where Wiley Coyote gets ran over by something and they peel him off like a piece of paper.... flat as a flitter.
Fritter, flat as a fritter
When I was growing up in Alabama, I heard "flat as a flitter" often. I also heard "flitter" used as a euphemism for other words meaning "feces."
You are correct! Thank goodness someone else knows what a flitter is! And they are delicious. It is a southern thing for sure. My dad and his family have always made them. They are from South eastern KY. O ly southern people know what they are...Lol! I'm from Ohio, but both parents from KY.
"Flat as a flitter". Like dried leaves flitter in the wind. They are quite thin.
A dead bird run over by a car multiple times and dried in the sun by the side of the road. I kicked a many of em. They were all flat flitters.
My mother was born and raised in Fayette County Texas and she said "flat as a flitter" all the time! Glad to know so many others say it, too.
It's fritter( flatter than a fritter) made of flour
A Flitter is a bread. Cornmeal and buttermilk fried like a pancake. So good with pintos and green fried tomatoes!! Low calorie high fiber! Kentucky family in Ohio😊
, flatter than a flitter we always said here in Letcher County Kentucky because that's the way we heard it but it may be a corruption of fritter. Back in these hills people lived very isolated lives from the rest of the world and the coal mining camps were filled with people from throughout Europe. So things were said the way they were said and meant what it said, flat. We also said you stoved your thumb and krilled your ankle, sprained it. But no one else ever heard of it. I tried to find out the etymolgy of the word and never could but it didn't change me using and stil saying krilled her ankle.
It looks like this convo actually started back in 2005. But, I'm gonna put my two cents in anyway, just 'cuz. I was born in Texas, and raised partly in Texas and partly in Florida. (My parents moved back and forth, A LOT!) I've heard this expression used with "flitter", which is how I say it, and with "fritter". For a true Southerner, it's not so much a matter of correctness, but usually, it's just what you've heard being said your whole life. Or, just as I read in a previous comment, we Southerner's like to make up words on the fly! Why? Just cuz we can! So you see, either term could be correct, according to your own family history or your own uniqueness.
In Florida, we called that a fritter. And it's fried green tomatoes, not green fried tomatoes. The way I see it, you fry a green tomato, you don't green fry a tomato. Lol. But, that's just our way of saying it, Sweetie!
As in flitter bread. Flour and water fried in oil. Similar to a pancake but salty
Yes, cathead biscuits are a great accompaniment to chocolate gravy. That's whats fer brekfest. Yum yum
Ummmmm yes. Born and raised a Kentucky girl, and it meaning "vagina" is what I know it for the best. The flat as a flitter saying means pancake but it also means vagina as well, which is what we know it for in the South Eastern part of the state. So just because YOU don't know it for that doesn't mean that the original poster is wrong.
I live in the South East part of Kentucky and Flitter is considered a dirty slang term for Vagina. So, if you come around here slinging that term around in a crowd, you'll see a bunch of red faces. Haha.
Yep, this is what I know it to be as well. Lol.
Ky girl here as well, and I've never heard a vagina referred to as a flitter.. The only flitter I've known is a flitter made with flour and water fried in butter...similar to a pancake..
It's a flat tire. Going nowhere. Slang
That's what my Pop called biscuits. I thought it was hilarious until realized it wasn't original,then I found it EXTRA hilarious.
Flitter IS a pancake.. its an old saying from the Deep South.. and goes back to slavery and poor folk's way of saying something is flat. The term pre-dates the more modern/widespread pancake.. and fritter may come from that word.
Flitter, like a cow flitter. (cake like cox patty)
I have been saying flat as a flutter all my life and I was born and raised in Georgia. But the correct term should be, flat as a fritter, as in an Apple fritter. But that doesn’t really make sense to me because all the Apple fritters I make are not flat. Google tells you where the term flat as a “flitter”comes from.
Oops, I meant to say in the first sentence flat as a flitter.
Well down south in MS a flitter could be referring to "a dead armadillo in the middle of the road"?? Lol
I grew up in the south. Flat as a flutter was referring to a pancake like bread fried in a pan. Made from flour. I guess maybe it was a poor person's pancake. My mother grew up during the depression in the Appalachian area.
Correction flitter
Meant to say flitter in comment above. Auto correct
I don't remember the salty part. I'm sure during the depression that would have used water. Milk only if it was available.
I was born and raised in South Eastern KY, and that is exactly what the term means “ flat as a flitter”, as well as “broke as a flitter”. Flitter- meaning (vagina). At least that’s what I heard my entire life.
It’s FLitter. Not FRitter. Fritters are like fried pies where as a FLitter is a flat non sweet pancake like bread. Goes well with Saurgum and butter. Resembles Naan bread from the Middle East that’s so popular in stores now. My gramma made them all through my childhood. She made both Fritters and Flitters. There is a difference.
Flitters are small thin pieces of metal used for decoration. The word comes from the German language. The expression is not exclusively southern. I have heard it in Maine from folks that had never been south of Boston.
The gold embossed seal on the publisher's clearing house mailings is an example of a flitter.
Flitters are often loosely hung by one edge so they move freely to and fore with the slightest breeze. Flittering.
Okay guys Tennessee Dave here, I'm late to this thread but I can offer a bit of perspective and say that you are all right as in accurate ,Yep Ha Hows that lol because as we know today regional dialects often differ to a great degree relative to the speaker, even with all the connectivity,such as available to us. So all of the real world examples mentioned here are just that and your loved ones knew exactly the point these sayings were intended to convey and furthermore sometimes we dont even have to understand the words spoken to know exactly what someone means like with groans ,moans , hmmm.. uh huh err, ayy etc lol..as Shakespeare once concluded “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"..so there ya have it y"all , as with most things it's all relative XD I have a deep affinity for linguistics and enjoyed reading this and noting how we actually find more commonality and shared experience than differences in the words themselves..
Been watching QVC and the male salesman keeps saying flatter than a flitter. That got my attention since in eastern KY flitter is slang for a female private part.
You got that right...with Chocolate Gravy!!
Yep! East Ky girl here. Flitter is absolutely a word for that female body part.
That is a fritter
I like this answer. I’ve heard flat as a flitter all my life and I’m 73. I was thinking it could have German origins as I believe there is some German in my ancestry. There are lots of things that can be as flat as a flitter such as flat tires, fritters, pancakes, dead animals run over on the road and on and on however that does not make them flitters it only makes them as flat as one. It is flitter not fritter or flicker or fliver.
my dad is from kentucky and my mother southern ohio. i always grew up hearing flatter than a flitter and now i live in south carolina and my husband thought that was the funniest thing he heard. i didn't know what to say when he ask me what a flitter was. I told him I don't know but it must be pretty flat. lol
If you do not know what flitter you are not southern. If you are not southern you are not human.
I am from the south but my husband is deep deep southern and I first had to ask him what he meant
I am from southern WV. My grandparents and parents say "Flat as a Flitter", as do I, even though I am well educated. It is a very old saying. It was a "poor people" food. It was made of just flour and water, very thin, flat and fried. Pancakes are thicker made with eggs, milk, oil or butter,also. Cathead biscuits are just drop biscuits that are not rolled out like regular biscuits and they are huge.. Never heard of a vagina being called a flitter, but anything is possible. But I remember my grandma telling me to wash up as far as possible and down as far as possible, then wash possible. People would say ," She has no boobs at all--she is as flat as a flitter." It also was used as a term for something of no substance. " That politician, his ideas are as flat as a flitter." We also ate corn, pinto bean, and apple fritters, which were basically thin biscuit dough with the corn, beans or apple put in it and fried in a lot of oil or deep fried. Also potato cakes, which were left over mashed potatoes, mixed with egg and flour and fried, til crisp. I remember being so hard up one spring, all we ate was potato cakes and a WV salad with fresh grown leaf lettuce with hot bacon grease, and a little sugar and vinegar. And ramps and muggins in season. Good stuff!
“Flat as a flitter” in Alabama refers to a fried pancake.
At 65 years , I grew up eating flitters as my family called them .
It is egg, milk , flour and pinch of salt . Some people call them crapes .
Often made as a Breakfast meals .
They are thinner than a pancake .
KY here too. I've heard flatter'n a flitter my whole life. Also heard lots of names for a vagina but never a flitter.
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