- flat (adj.)
- c. 1300, "stretched out (on a surface), prostrate, lying the whole length on the ground;" mid-14c., "level, all in one plane; even, smooth;" of a roof, "low-pitched," from Old Norse flatr "flat," from Proto-Germanic *flata- (source also of Old Saxon flat "flat, shallow," Old High German flaz "flat, level," Old English flet (for which see flat (n.)), Old High German flezzi "floor"), from PIE *plat- "to spread" (source of Greek platys "broad, flat;" see plaice (n.)). From c. 1400 as "without curvature or projection."
Sense of "prosaic, dull" is from 1570s, on the notion of "featureless, lacking contrast." Used of drink from c. 1600; of musical notes from 1590s, because the tone is "lower" than a given or intended pitch; of women's bosoms by 1864. Flat tire or flat tyre is from 1908. Flat-screen (adj.) in reference to television is from 1969 as a potential technology. Flat-earth (adj.) in reference to refusal to accept evidence of a global earth, is from 1876.
- flat (n.)
- 1801, "a story of a house," from Scottish flat "floor or story of a house," from Old English flett "a dwelling; floor, ground," from the same source as flat (adj.). Meaning "floor or part of a floor set up as an apartment" is from 1824. Directly from flat (adj.) come the senses "level ground near water" (late 13c.); "a flat surface, the flat part of anything" (1374), and "low shoe" (1834).
- flat (adv.)
- 1550s, "absolutely, downright;" 1570s, "plainly, positively," from flat (adj.). Flat-out (adv.) "openly, directly" is from 1932, originally in motor racing, picked up in World War II by the airmen; earlier it was a noun meaning "total failure" (1870, U.S. colloquial).
- flat (v.)
- c. 1600, "to lay flat;" 1670s in music, from flat (adj.). Related: Flatted; flatting.
