flacker
To flutter like a bird.
Verb
- To flutter like a bird.
- And the cherubins flackered with their wings. - 1535, Myles Coverdale, Bible, Ezekiel x. 19:
- To flicker; to quiver.
Origin
From Middle English flakeren (“to flutter, waver”), from Old English *flacorian, from Proto-West Germanic *flakurōn, from Proto-Germanic *flakurōną (“to flutter”), related to Old English flacor (“flickering, fluttering”). Sometimes regarded as a frequentative, equivalent to flack + -er (frequentative suffix). Akin to Middle Dutch flakkeren (“to flicker, waver”), German flackern (“to flare, flicker, flutter”), Icelandic flökra (“to flutter”), Icelandic flakka (“to rove about”), Old English flacor (“flying, fluttering”). See also flack, flicker.