I read an article in which the Queen was said to like each of these. Can a punter here suggest why flutter started to be used for a (small) bet? Has it to do with the flutter of cash, or a fan perhaps?


edit-in:
I meant to make this have a 'question' icon but I must have slipped! Scheiß drop-down menus!

i wonder if perhaps it can simply be a reference to a fleeting, trifling or fluttering 'flirtation' with gambling. Isn't it most commonly applied to a bet (usually on a horse race) by a casual wagerer?

I've never seen these words in reference to betting only in reference drinking hard liquor.

I looked it up in MW and they have one definition that refers to drinking and one that describes a person that works at a tipple - a device that tilts or overturns a freight car to dump its contents.

Are you sure the Queen wasn’t saying she liked to take a small drink every once in a while.

Flutter has only an assortment of “waving, flapping” definitions.

a flutter is indeed UK slang for a small bet, usually one made by someone unaccustumed to wagering, and it sets his heart aflutter.

So do you think she was saying a drink and a bet

So do you think she was saying a drink and a bet

Exactly! When I read the post, I wondered if it were in connection with the wrong Queen Elizabeth, as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother is famous for being very fond of having a tipple (G&T, I believe), and a flutter.

Never heard "flutter" in connection with a bet until I went to the horse races in Ireland. Immediately knew it was a small bet ... context I guess.
I think US became acquainted with the term when all the BBC stuff crossed the pond .
There was a PBS (Public Broadcasting System) program about Britain's Royal Family which had a bit showing Her Majesty at the races and she was heard to make a 10-pound bet. Guess that's a "flutter" to her!
A flutter in US would be a $2 bet! Or $6 if you were betting "across the board" which would pay out if your horse won, placed (2nd) or showed (3rd).

"Tipple" would give you away as British in most US bars

>.. it sets his heart aflutter

This seems a fair connection. I guess those unaccustomed to betting might find risking a couple of quid quite exciting.
It got me thinking about how arbitrary the 'a' suffix seems; compare aflutter, affront and awash.