Flinted

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Derived from or possessing the qualities associated with flint, often indicating a hard and sharp surface
2. Composed of or having the characteristics of a hard stone used historically to produce sparks ; created or shaped by striking flint to generate fire or tool edges
3. Having qualities similar to the durable and sharply fractured rock used for tools ; formed or chipped by hitting with flint to cause ignition or shaping

Etymology: "Flinted" is simply the past tense and past participle of "flint", so its story is really the story of the stone. The noun comes from Old English "flint", which traces back to Proto-Germanic "flintaz", and the root behind it is a Proto-Indo-European idea of splitting or cleaving. That makes sense for the stone: flint breaks with a sharp, predictable fracture, which is why people valued it for cutting tools and, later, for striking sparks. Verbs made from "flint" were formed by adding the regular English past-tense ending "-ed" to the noun. The sense "struck with flint" describes an action with a flint, such as striking a spark or shaping a surface with the stone. The word is a plain, transparent formation, and it shares its root with "flint" in every sense.

Synonyms: sparked, struck, ignited, kindled, fired

Antonyms: extinguished, quenched, doused, smothered, snuffed