1560s, "one who or that which flaps," agent noun from flap (v.). Sense of "forward young woman" is 1921 slang, but the exact connection is disputed. Perhaps from flapper "young wild-duck or partridge" (1747), with reference to flapping wings while learning to fly, many late 19c. examples of which are listed in Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary" (1900), including one that defines it as "A young partridge unable to fly. Applied in joke to a girl of the bread-and-butter age."
Other suggested sources include a late 19c. northern English dialectal use of the word for "teen-age girl" (on notion of one with the hair not yet put up), or an earlier meaning "prostitute" (1889), which is perhaps from dialectal flap "young woman of loose character" (1610s). Any or all of these might have converged in the 1920s sense. Wright also has flappy, of persons, "wild, unsteady, flighty," with the note that it also was "Applied to a person's character, as 'a flappy lass,'" and further on he lists flappy sket (n.) "an immoral woman." In Britain the word took on political tones in reference to the debate over voting rights.
"Flapper" is the popular press catch-word for an adult woman worker, aged twenty-one to thirty, when it is a question of giving her the vote under the same conditions as men of the same age. ["Punch," Nov. 30, 1927]
双语例句
1. Isn't there any romance or adventure without having a flapper in it?
如果没有甲板在上面就没有任何的冒险或浪漫?
来自电影对白
2. The invention relates to swing flapper used to kill mosquito and fly.
本发明涉及一种用于捕杀蚊蝇的蚊甩子.
来自互联网
3. And theoretical basis is presented to further apply nozzle - flapper valve to two - stage electro - hydraulic servo valve .
较快的响应速度;为进一步将其应用于两级 电液伺服 阀提供了设计和实验依据.
来自互联网
4. Is revolving flapper's picture through many plugs, contains explains the self - respect self - respect this subject.
通过多个插头围绕着插板的画面, 含蓄来说明 自尊 自爱的这一主题.
来自互联网
5. Louise Brooks, the archetypical American flapper, was photographed by Eugene Robert Richee in 1928.
