flapper

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a fashionable young woman of the 1920s who rejected older social conventions in her dress and behavior

   The novel follows a flapper through the dance halls of Jazz Age New York.

2. 2
   noun

   a person, animal, limb, or device that flaps; historically, a flipper-like limb

   The Mock Turtle drew one flapper across his eyes and sighed.

Formed from flap plus the agent suffix -er. It was used for a young bird not yet able to fly and later for an adolescent girl. By the 1920s it had become the name for a socially unconventional young woman associated with short skirts, bobbed hair, dancing, and the Jazz Age. The literal 'thing that flaps' sense is older and explains Alice's use for the Mock Turtle's limb.

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