fluke

fluke · noun, verb¹

Unknown, perhaps dialectal. It seems to have originally referred to a lucky shot at billiards. Possibly connected to sense 3, referring to whales' use of flukes to move rapidly. Possibly derived from German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”).

fluke · noun²

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*flakaz
2. Old English · inherited fromflōc“flatfish”
3. English todayfluke

From Old English flōc (“flatfish”), of Germanic origin, related to German flach (“flat”), Old Norse floke (“flatfish”), all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.

fluke · noun³

1. Proto-Germanic · derived from*flugilaz
2. Middle Low German · derived fromvlögel“wing”
3. English todayfluke

Mid-16th century in the sense of “anchor blade”. Probably the same word as in etymology 2 above or else a related word for something flat (cf. Proto-Germanic *flakaz). A derivation from Middle Low German vlögel (“wing”), from Proto-Germanic *flugilaz, seems phonetically impossible. If anything, related vlōch, vlucht (“flight”, both also “wing”) or even *vlunke (modern Low German Flunk (“wing, pinion”)) are more plausible candidates. Note that the kind of whale's fin is called Fluke in contemporary German, but this is likely from English.

Fluke · proper noun⁴

Variant of Flook.

Words from the same roots