or -brain, -wit, subs. phr. (old).—An eccentric; a scatterling. Whence SHUTTLE-HEADED, &c. = flighty, scatter-brained; SHUTTLENESS = rashness, thoughtlessness. Also SHITTLE-HEAD, &c.

1

  c. 1440.  Paston Letters, I. 69. I am aferd that Jon of Sparham is … SCHYTTL-WYTTED.

2

  1564.  UDALL, The Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 341. Metellus was so SHUTTLE BRAINED that euen in the middes of his tribuneship he left his office in Rome.

3

  1580.  BARET, An Alvearie, or Triple Dictionarie in English, Latin, and French [HALLIWELL]. The vain SHITTLENESSE of an unconstant head.

4

  1590.  GREENE, A Quip for an Upstart Courtier [Harleian Miscellany, v. 417]. Upstart boies, and SHITTLE-WITTED fools.

5

  d. 1601.  NASHE [?], Tom Nash his Ghost [C. HINDLEY, ed. The Old Book Collector’s Miscellany, v.]. I would wish these SHUTTLE-HEADS that desire to take in the embers of rebellion, to give over blowing the coals too much, lest the sparks fly in their faces.

6

  1625–49.  MS. Poem [HALLIWELL: temp. Chas. I.].

        Nor can you deeme them SHUTTLE HEADED fellowes
Who for the Lord are so exceeding zealous.

7

  1639–61.  Rump Songs (1662), i. 7.

        Is it not strange, that in that SHUTTLE-HEAD
Three Kingdoms ruines should be buried?

8

  d. 1894.  R. L. STEVENSON, Olalla. I wondered what had called forth in a lad so SHUTTLE-WITTED this enduring sense of duty.

9