Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Dec 14 - 10:55 AM

I agree, actually. It's pure fun to sing 'old Mother Flipperflopper.'

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 02:54 PM

Ask Gammer Gurton. 9 times out of ten these nonsense pieces of alliteration are just that, nonsense!

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 11:32 AM

I assume her husband was German and her name resembles Aschenbrenner or Hinterstocker, just two German names I know of that have that form.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: Brian Peters
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 10:26 AM

I always assumed she was an inconsistent politician.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 10:19 AM

Is she wearing flip-flops?

"Kids today" may think so.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 10:02 AM

In Joseph Ritson's Gammer Gurton's Garland (1810), the song is recorded under the name "Dame Widdle Waddle":

    "Old Mother Widdle Waddle jumpt out of bed"

The YT version on So Cheerfully Round calls her Slipper-Slopper -- or possibly Slibber-Slobber[?]

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 09:56 AM

But it isn't that kind of song.

Earlier versions have "Old Mother Widdle Waddle."

If they mean anything, both names imply a clumsy or noisy gait.

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 09:51 AM

Flopping round the house in loose slippers is the image I always get. Some versions give "Slipper-Slopper" instead, I believe.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: G-Force
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 08:34 AM

Probably refers to the bosoms of a lady getting up in the night in just a nightgown.

Subject: Origins: Old mother flipper-flopper?
From: Tiger
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 08:18 AM

I know she's in The Fox" but where does the name come from?

Common jargon? Just a nonsensical made-up name?

Or, is there more to it? Like, perhaps, a parody of some person.