December 9, 1996

flivver

My father used the slang term "flivver" to mean a car. (The spelling is a guess.) I've never known where it came from. Do you?

No, I don't have a clue. No one really does; "origin unknown" is the phrase to keep in mind when discussing this word, because it appears in almost every reference.

The earliest use of flivver is 'a small, cheap, or old automobile', and in the early days referred especially to a Ford Model A or Model T. This sense is first found in 1910. Nowadays this use is typically historical or jocular; it's rarely found when discussing current cars. Two derived senses that are now obsolete are the naval sense 'a 750-ton destroyer' (the full-size model was 1000 tons), which was only used during WWI, and the aviation sense 'a small plane'.

The other important sense is 'a failure or disappointment; something inferior'. This is first found in 1915, but its related verb 'to fail; fizzle' is first found in 1912. It is therefore quite possible that this is the original sense, and the 'lousy car' sense is just a narrowing that became very popular, and its slightly earlier attestation is just an accident of the historical record. However, even if true, we still have no idea where this sense of flivver comes from.

Some other related words are flivver as a verb meaning 'to drive in a flivver'; fliv as a noun usually meaning 'something inferior' and rarely meaning 'a lousy car'; and fliv as a verb in both senses of flivver verb.