A.Word.A.Day --flagrant

A.Word.A.Day

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Sep 5, 2016

This week’s theme
Misc. words

This week’s words
flagrant
mendacious
venal
feckless
veritable

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

This week we’ll feature a potpourri of words. We opened a dictionary, shook it gently, and five words fell out. They came in all shapes, sizes, and senses. They’re short and long. They’re flighty and grouchy. Call ’em what you will, a medley of words, a farrago, or a gallimaufry. They’re disparate, they’re diverse. They’re varied and variegated, unclassified, and unsorted. And they’re all ready for use.

flagrant

PRONUNCIATION:

(FLAY-gruhnt)

MEANING:

adjective: Conspicuously offensive.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin flagrare (to burn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhel- (to shine or burn), which is also the source of blaze, blank, blond, bleach, blanket, flame, refulgent, fulminate, effulgent, and flagrante delicto. Earliest documented use: 1450.

USAGE:

“The Saudi-led coalition warplanes waged on Tuesday three raids ... in a flagrant breach to the ceasefire.”
Saudi War Jets Launch Three Raids on Harib Nehm in Mareb; Yemen News Agency (Sana’a); May 24, 2016.

See more usage examples of flagrant in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones. -John Cage, composer (5 Sep 1912-1992)

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