Flinty
/ˈflɪn.ti/noun
Resembling flint, especially in hardness, color, or the ability to produce sparks.
Did you know?Flint’s ability to create sparks made it one of humanity’s earliest fire-making materials, which helped give “flinty” its later metaphorical sense of hardness and emotional severity.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European (proposed)
PIE
*splēy-
“To split or cleave; a proposed root associated with flint and related words for fractured material.”
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*flintą
“Flint, a hard stone capable of producing sparks; the deeper origin is uncertain but has been compared with roots meaning “split.””
Old English
Old English
flint
“A hard stone, especially one used for striking fire.”
Middle English
Middle English
flint
“Flint or a hard, spark-producing stone.”
16th Century
English
flinty
“Made of or resembling flint; figuratively, hard or unfeeling.”
Modern English
English
flinty
“Hard, stony, spark-producing, or emotionally unyielding.”