Fickle vs Flaky - What's the difference?

As adjectives the difference between fickle and flaky

is that fickle is quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable while flaky is consisting of flakes or of small, loose masses; lying, or cleaving off, in flakes or layers; flakelike.

As a verb fickle

is to deceive; flatter.

fickle

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) fikil, fikil, from (etyl) {{term, ficol, , fickle, cunning, tricky , deceitful, lang=ang}}, equivalent to . More at (l).

Adjective

(en-adj)

Quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable.

(figurative) changeable

* 2014, (Paul Salopek), Blessed. Cursed. Claimed. , National Geographic (December 2014)[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2014/12/pilgrim-roads/salopek-text]

To the south, the vast geometrical deserts of Arabian nomads, a redoubt of feral movement, of fickle winds, of open space, of saddle leather—home to the wild Bedouin tribes.

Derived terms

* (l) * (l)

Etymology 2

From (etyl) fikelen, from .

Verb

(fickl)

To deceive; flatter.

To puzzle; perplex; nonplus.

flaky

English

Alternative forms

* flakey

Adjective

(er)

Consisting of flakes or of small, loose masses; lying, or cleaving off, in flakes or layers; flakelike.

(informal, of a, person) Unreliable; prone to make plans with others but then abandon those plans.

Some of his friends were flaky .

(informal, of a, thing) Unreliable; working only on an intermittent basis; prone to cease functioning properly.

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 16, author=Ben Dirs, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: New Zealand 83-7 Japan, work=BBC Sport citation

, passage=Toeava went over unopposed to stretch his side's lead but Japan got on the scoreboard on 56 minutes, wing Hirotoki Onozawa intercepting an attempted offload from Slade, who had a rather flaky game, and running in from the All Blacks' 10m line.}}

I cannot enjoy the online game because of my flaky Internet connection.