Flibbertigibbet

[My Good Babushka]

Flibbertigibbet means a flighty, whimsical, silly person, but it also has meant a fiend, imp or devil. The word may have risen from the expression "fly by the gibbet". A gibbet was used to exhibit hanged bodies or to hang criminals in cages, sometimes alive, while their bodies were picked apart by birds and wild animals, hence "flying away" piece by piece. This indicated that the person is some breed of rascal deserving of the gibbet. It may also have risen from the sailing expression of hoisting the gibbet sail because a sail not pulled tight will flap in the wind. If one's sail is not pulled tight it is akin to the expression of "having a screw loose."

[Aristus]

1. If the word wasn't coined by William Shakespeare,

he at least certainly helped to popularize it through its use in King Lear.