Transmitted from the wwftd

"Some called her a gilflurt, a proud minks. You had no
more chance than a cat.. without claws if you entered
into a dispute with her."
- Susan Sayer, Xanthippe (fr. Car Maintenance.. (1997))

Gilflurt is obvious to me, but I would gladly also know what 'proud minks' means. Just someone wearing those little
animals's hides? The fur?

It's actually spelled minx.

It's actually spelled minx.

Probably spelled that way, because they looked up the definition of gilflurt in Grose's dictionary: "A proud minks, a vain capricious woman," (link)

Initially I thought gilflurt was girlflurt and a misspelling of girlflirt with the obvious meaning. I just now noticed the missing R in gil- so now I'm not so sure.

here's the whole entry, for those who didn't see it; make of it what you will..

the worthless word for the day is: gilflurt

[see also flirt-gills, Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet]
obs. a proud minks, a vain capricious woman
{Grose's 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue}

"Some called her a gilflurt, a proud minks. You had no
more chance than a cat.. without claws if you entered
into a dispute with her."
- Susan Sayer, Xanthippe (fr. Car Maintenance.. (1997))

My first thought was to link gilflurt with gill-flower (or gilly-flower) which is an old name for the wallflower, erysimum
No idea if I'm right or way off!

Gil ìs girl, at least in the days of Grose.

Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.
. Every jack has his gill; i.e. every jack has his gillian, or female mate.

What makes me laugh in this definition is " figuratively used for woman". What is a gillian??

Gillian is a girl's name (soft g), a variant of Julian(a); it's like every Jack has his Jill.

and speaking of Shakespeare,
I am none of his flurt-gils, I am none of his skaines mates..

I won't define these usages here, as I would probly get moderated, but YCLIU.

you can do that here

Ah, that makes sense, thanks.