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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL5 source sections across 1 headword matching “Flag”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
flagEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗flagEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape. Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗flagEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Perhaps from a variant of flack (“to hang loose”), from Middle English flacken; or perhaps from Old Norse. Compare Middle Dutch flaggheren, vlaggheren (“to droop, flag”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗flagEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
From Middle English flagge, of uncertain origin, perhaps from North Germanic; compare Danish flæg (“yellow iris”). Or, possibly from sense 1, referring to its motion in the wind. Compare also Dutch vlag.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗flagEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
From Middle English flag, flagge, probably of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin; compare Icelandic flag.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Chambers (1908)
1908- FlagEnglish · e-38538-1739
Flag, flag, v.i. to grow languid or spiritless.—pr.p. flag′ging; pa.p. flagged.—n. Flag′giness.—adj. Flag′gy, limp, flabby. [Perh. O. Fr. flac—L. flaccus; prob. influenced by imit. forms as flap.]
Read the full source record → - FlagEnglish · e-38538-1740
Flag, flag, n. a popular name for many plants with sword-shaped leaves, mostly growing in moist situations, sometimes specially the species of iris or flower-de-luce—esp. the yellow flag: the acorus or sweet flag: (B.) r
Read the full source record → - FlagEnglish · e-38538-1741
Flag, flag, n. the ensign of a ship or of troops: a banner.—v.t. to decorate with flags: to inform by flag-signals.—ns. Flag′-cap′tain, in the navy, the captain of the ship which bears the admiral's flag; Flag′-lieuten′a
Read the full source record → - FlagEnglish · e-38538-1742
Flag, flag, n. a stone that separates in flakes or layers: a flat stone used for paving—also Flag′stone.—v.t. to pave with flagstones.—n. Flag′ging, flagstones: a pavement of flagstones. [A form of flake; Ice. flaga, a f
Read the full source record →
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
No reviewed record in this collection contains “flag.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 6
Does sem frændr en eigi sem fiandr prove the ordinary friend sense?
ONP files the phrase under friend but flags possible kin sense 3; Cleasby–Vigfússon treats it as a possible alliterative exception. The citation does not force one clean answer.
Is there also a masculine hatr?
ONP maintains a separate masculine analysis, but it rests on one citation and the editors flag it as possibly an elementary error. The possibility remains visible without being promoted to parity with the 54-citation neuter entry.
Are Haß and Hass different etymological words?
No. They are standard-spelling stages of the same noun. Duden explicitly flags the 1996 spelling change without a semantic or pronunciation split.
Are fiiant, fîjant, fiunt, fient, fiand, fiund, and fiend separate ancestry branches?
Not in AWB's article. They are form, spelling, dialectal, and inflectional records inside one headword history, with a few individual corrupt or ambiguous tokens separately flagged.
Do all printed spellings represent separate lexemes?
No. ONW groups fiunt, dfiunt, fiundis, fiundes, fiunda, uiande, uiende, fiundo, fiundun, fiundum, uiandan, and viannden inside one lemma and inflection table, while flagging individual readings.
Does Gothic hatis simply mean the modern emotion hate?
No. Hatred remains a legitimate dictionary gloss, but the surviving biblical tokens do different translation work: Streitberg maps the noun chiefly to Greek orgē, maps Galatians 5:20 to thumos, and flags Ephesians 4:31 because both Greek wrath nouns are adjacent.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 2
Gothic hatis—the noun related to English hate—survives chiefly as wrath, including the wrath to come and the wrath of God.
Project Wulfila reports fifteen tokens in hatis, hatiza, and hatize. Fourteen are biblical; Streitberg maps the family chiefly to Greek orgē, gives Galatians 5:20 thumos, and flags Ephesians 4:31 because both stand together. Codex Argenteus folio 129r directly preserves hatiza in “the wrath to come.” Even the paradigm resists simplification: synchronic neuter a-stem, historically an i-stem remodeled into it.
Old Norse hatr has a 54-to-1 grammar problem.
The University of Copenhagen’s Dictionary of Old Norse Prose separates a 54-citation neuter noun from a one-citation masculine analysis—and flags the lone masculine assignment as possibly an elementary error. A directly inspected c.1150-1200 manuscript visibly preserves Hatr, but a visible token cannot settle gender by itself. The reveal is not that Old Norse had two equally secure hate nouns; it is that rigorous lexicography preserves the fracture instead of hiding it.
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “flag.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “flag.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.