Earlier in the month, I shared Dickinson’s poem “The wind begun to knead the grass,” a poem which uses an obsolete form of the word “flung”; I included this:
“An archaic use of flung (and its root, fling) was ‘to run or rush’ (additionally, in Middle English, the verb fling had a regular past tense, flang, and an archaic past participle, flungen, that have since fallen out of use) – so the cattle, in Dickinson’s poem, ran into the barn to get out of harm's way.”
I was curious as to how often Dickinson used the verb “fling” in her poetry, so I checked the online archive. Thirty-five entries popped up as a result of my search, and those entries represented fifteen poems. I also searched “flung,” which had thirteen entries representing four additional poems.
I then checked the Dickinson Lexicon to see how “fling” was used in her poems, and I expected definitions 1 and 3, but the second one surprised me:
1. Throw; hurl; drop; send; place.
2. Ask; implore; request; speak.
3.Driven by violence; forced away.
I checked various online dictionaries to see if that second definition was listed for “fling,” and yes, it was there. For example, this is an entry from the Cambridge Dictionary: “to say something angrily: fling something at someone They were flinging bitter accusations at each other. ‘I don't care what you think,’ she flung (back) at him; There's no need to fling around accusations of racism or homophobia.”
However (with a hearty LOL), I totally forgot about “fling” as “a casual, short-term sexual or romantic relationship” – but no need to worry; that definition was never used by Dickinson.
I do admit, I did try to find the origins of the word “fling” as a romantic encounter, but I couldn’t find anything definitive – although it seems to have been used in the context of a casual relationship as early as the 1820s, evolving from a general meaning (dating back as early as 1550) of a "period of indulgence” (as in, “He went on a trip as one last fling before starting work”). I also discovered that an obsolete word for "streetwalker, harlot" – dating back to the 1670s – was fling-stink (although this word does not seem to be related etymologically to the noun “fling”).
For now, though, let me fling back to my earlier information about Dickinson’s poems with the word “fling”/“flung,” and fling this at you: I said there were fifteen poems with “fling” and four more with “flung” for a total of nineteen poems. However, that really depends upon which version of “It sifts from Leaden Sieves” you read. There are five versions of that poem, some which include the word “fling” while others do not.
Four versions of the poem are shown below. Two include the word “fling” (in line 12), two do not.
“An archaic use of flung (and its root, fling) was ‘to run or rush’ (additionally, in Middle English, the verb fling had a regular past tense, flang, and an archaic past participle, flungen, that have since fallen out of use) – so the cattle, in Dickinson’s poem, ran into the barn to get out of harm's way.”
I was curious as to how often Dickinson used the verb “fling” in her poetry, so I checked the online archive. Thirty-five entries popped up as a result of my search, and those entries represented fifteen poems. I also searched “flung,” which had thirteen entries representing four additional poems.
I then checked the Dickinson Lexicon to see how “fling” was used in her poems, and I expected definitions 1 and 3, but the second one surprised me:
1. Throw; hurl; drop; send; place.
2. Ask; implore; request; speak.
3.Driven by violence; forced away.
I checked various online dictionaries to see if that second definition was listed for “fling,” and yes, it was there. For example, this is an entry from the Cambridge Dictionary: “to say something angrily: fling something at someone They were flinging bitter accusations at each other. ‘I don't care what you think,’ she flung (back) at him; There's no need to fling around accusations of racism or homophobia.”
However (with a hearty LOL), I totally forgot about “fling” as “a casual, short-term sexual or romantic relationship” – but no need to worry; that definition was never used by Dickinson.
I do admit, I did try to find the origins of the word “fling” as a romantic encounter, but I couldn’t find anything definitive – although it seems to have been used in the context of a casual relationship as early as the 1820s, evolving from a general meaning (dating back as early as 1550) of a "period of indulgence” (as in, “He went on a trip as one last fling before starting work”). I also discovered that an obsolete word for "streetwalker, harlot" – dating back to the 1670s – was fling-stink (although this word does not seem to be related etymologically to the noun “fling”).
For now, though, let me fling back to my earlier information about Dickinson’s poems with the word “fling”/“flung,” and fling this at you: I said there were fifteen poems with “fling” and four more with “flung” for a total of nineteen poems. However, that really depends upon which version of “It sifts from Leaden Sieves” you read. There are five versions of that poem, some which include the word “fling” while others do not.
Four versions of the poem are shown below. Two include the word “fling” (in line 12), two do not.
By the way, “fling, ”meaning "vigorous dance" – associated with the Scottish Highlands – dates back to 1804.
LOL…in exploring this, I also learned that Oscar Wilde frequently used the word and that his characters would often "fling" themselves onto sofas, chairs, and the floor in fits of despair (described in the stage directions of his plays). Read all about it HERE.
LOL…in exploring this, I also learned that Oscar Wilde frequently used the word and that his characters would often "fling" themselves onto sofas, chairs, and the floor in fits of despair (described in the stage directions of his plays). Read all about it HERE.
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