Flagrant
/ˈfleɪ.ɡrənt/noun
Conspicuously offensive, blatant, or glaringly obvious.
Did you know?It comes from Latin *flāgrāns*, the present participle of *flāgrāre* (“to burn”), so the modern sense of something “blatant” grew out of the image of a thing blazing so brightly it cannot be ignored.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*bʰleh₁-
“to burn, blaze”
Latin
Latin
flāgrāre
“to burn, glow”
Latin
Latin
flāgrāns
“burning, blazing”
Late Latin / Old French
Latin / Old French
flagrant
“burning, blazing; glaring”
16th Century
English
flagrant
“burning; glaring; conspicuously offensive”
Modern English
English
flagrant
“blatantly bad or offensively obvious”
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