Flickered

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Emitted light that alternates rapidly between bright and dim or flashes irregularly
2. Produced a wavering or unsteady light that comes and goes quickly
3. Displayed brightness that fluctuates in a quick, uneven manner

Etymology: Before "flickered" described light, it described motion. Old English "flicerian" meant "to flutter," and the same root lies behind a family of Germanic words for quick, wavering movement, including Dutch "flikkeren" and German "flackern." The flutter of wings and the flash of a candle flame were treated as one kind of motion, which is why the word moved easily from birds to fire. The verb's past form "flickered" simply follows the regular English pattern, so its story is really the story of the stem. In Middle English the verb was "flikeren," meaning to flutter, and it kept that sense for centuries before light became its main use. The bird called the flicker, a North American woodpecker, first appears in English in 1808. Its name may be echoic of its call, or may come from the flickering look of its white-spotted plumage, which is also a plausible source for the verb's own sense of light.

Synonyms: flashed, twinkled, glimmered

Antonyms: stayed lit, shone steadily