A Flight of Stairs and a Flight of Birds
Flight is the act of flying, and also fleeing. Two different Old English verbs collapsed into one noun.
Flight means both the act of flying and the act of fleeing. Two separate Old English verbs, *fleogan*, to fly, and *fleon*, to flee, produced nouns that fell together. That is why *flight* covers a bird in the air and a refugee on the road, and why English has *fight or flight* meaning to stand or to run.
- The act of flying. *A long flight.*
- A journey by aircraft. *The flight was delayed.*
- Fleeing. *Flight from persecution.*
- A set of stairs. *Two flights up.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | flight | A domestic flight. |
| Plural | flights | Cancelled flights. |
| Verb | fly | Fly south. |
| Verb | flee | Flee the country. |
| Adjective | flighty | A flighty manner. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Fight or flight.The stress response.
- Two flights of stairs.An unbroken run of steps.
- A flight of fancy.An unrealistic idea.
Senses of flight
- Aviation — a scheduled journey
- Biology — powered movement through air
- Fleeing — escape from danger
- Architecture — a continuous run of stairs
- Archery — the feathers on an arrow, also called fletching
From Old English *flyht*, flying, and a related noun from *fleon*, to flee. The two merged in Middle English.
Are fly and flee related?
They are separate Old English verbs, though their nouns merged. The confusion between them is very old.
Why is a set of stairs a flight?
From the idea of a continuous run, the same sense of an uninterrupted passage through space.