Flirting
social behavior that suggests interest in a deeper relationship with the other person
Flirting, formally known as coquetry, is a form of social communication via body language, verbal expressions, or written language, intended to evoke feelings of playful excitement and potential romantic or sexual interest. Flirting can change in intention as well as intensity, whether it is performed for short-term fun or employed with a longer-term intention of seeking a romantic or sexual relationship.
A person might flirt with another by speaking or behaving in such a way that suggests their desire to increase intimacy in their current relationship with that person. The approach may include communicating a sense of playfulness, irony, or by using double entendres. Friendliness is distinct from flirting.
Etymology
The origin of the word "flirt" is unknown. The first use of the word dates to 1580—with the intransitive "flit" and the noun form—ca 1590—with the transitive "flick".
Flirt has been attributed to the French conter fleurette, meaning to woo. Fleurette, meaning small flower, was used in the 16th century in some sonnets and texts, and has since fallen out of use. This expression is still used in French, often mockingly, although the English loanword, "to flirt", is in the common vernacular.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Flirting” as social behavior that suggests interest in a deeper relationship with the other person. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as social behavior that suggests interest in a deeper relationship with the other person. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q208704. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1580 and 1590.
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This entry incorporates text from “Flirting” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.