flea [OE] The first use of flea is recorded as early as the 8th century. Fleas are jumping insects, and since the late 19th century we have used fit as a flea to describe an active, healthy person. People have been sent away with a flea in their ear since the 15th century, and the idea dates back earlier in France. The telling-off or rejection is so ‘sharp’ that it is likened to the pain of a flea bite. Flea markets [E20th] and fleapits [M20th], or scruffy cinemas, get their names from the idea that they are places which harbour fleas.