Oh my word Blatant, Flagrant

Bollywood star Salman Khan was punished by the Court for his flagrant act of speeding over pedestrians and running away from the car; and also for blatantly driving the car in an inebriated (drunken) state. Blatant means brazenly obvious. Note that the Oxford dictionary also lists flagrant as one of the meanings of blatant. Blatant is an adjective. Blatant means glaring, tastelessly conspicuous, audacious, palpable, flagrant, and indisputable. Informally, blatant means undisguised, unsubtle, and unconcealed.

The authorities need to end their blatant retaliation against government critics. Blatant also means offensively noisy, obtrusive and clamorous. The remarks made by several politicians are blatant and sexist. In media, blatant errors are not excused in news reporting both on television and newspaper. Blatancy is a noun and blatantly is an adverb.

As Catholic teachers, we strongly object to this blatant insensitivity to our moral values and legal rights. Flagrant means shockingly noticeable or evident, obvious, glaring, notorious, scandalous. Flagrant is an adjective, usually used to describe an action of something bad or shocking act of someone. Flagrantly is an adverb. Flagrancy is a noun. Flagrant is subtly different from blatant because flagrant refers to an action that is shockingly bad and obvious; outrageous, awful, notorious, and scandalous.

A flagrant violation of law; a flagrant disregard for human rights A country could be described as a banana republic if its courts show flagrant regard for justice. Though many dictionaries list blatant and flagrant as synonymous, some authors disagree by pointing out to the subtle difference between the two words.

Bill Bryson explains in ‘Trouble Words’: “The words (blatant and flagrant) are not quite synonymous. Something that is blatant is glaringly obvious and contrived (‘a blatant lie’) or willfully obnoxious (‘blatant electioneering’) or both. Something that is flagrant is shocking and reprehensible (‘a flagrant miscarriage of justice’).

If I tell you that I regularly travel to the moon, that is a blatant lie, not a flagrant one. If you set fire to my house, that is flagrant act, not a blatant one.” The media looks out for flagrant (rigging, booth capturing) violation of code of conduct by political parties during elections and also for those who could also be caught for blatant acts (distributing money or liquor).

Kovuuri G Reddy