| 词组 | blatant, flagrant |
| 释义 | blatant, flagrant Several commentators note that these words "are confused," which, being interpreted, means "have senses that overlap in meaning." This is a relatively new subject—one first noticed, apparently, in Partridge 1942, which records Anthony Eden saying "a blatant breach of good faith" in a 1936 speech. Evans 1957 worked out a distinction between blatant and flagrant and so did Bernstein 1965, along somewhat different lines. Most subsequent commentators echo one of these two. Blatant is usually the point of the comment. One matter that draws notice is the extension of blatant from its earliest "noisy" senses to a sense "glaringly conspicuous or obtrusive"—a shift from the ear to the eye, so to speak. The OED Supplement dates this development from the end of the 19th century. The sense was given in Webster 1909 but was deleted by a short-sighted editor working on Webster's Second ( 1934). It has become the predominant sense in modern use. The conspicuousness denoted by both blatant and flagrant is almost always of an undesirable kind. Several commentators from Evans and Bernstein on note that flagrant stresses scandalous or wicked behavior. This is its most common use, and it commonly modifies such nouns as violation and abuse. • ... in flagrant violation of the Hague and Geneva conventions —William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, 1960 • ... uncovered flagrant discrimination —Francis X. Gannon, Change, September 1971 • ... I, who even in the most flagrant crimes had denied the justice and righteousness of capital punishment —Jack London, The Sea-Wolf 1904 Blatant is sometimes used similarly: • ... more graft, more mismanagement and more blatant knavery —Harold L. Ickes, New Republic, 16 May 1949 • ... the most blatant and public forms of sex discrimination —Lillian Foster, McCall's, March 1971 • ... this blatant violation of human dignity and international law —Edward Weisband & Thomas M. Franck, Trans-Action, October 1971 Blatant, in general, carries less moral freight than flagrant: • Interpolated essays or apostrophes by the novelist are of course a blatant violation of the principle — Bernard De Voto, The World of Fiction, 1950 Still, flagrant is not limited to expressions of moral outrage, as one or two commentators suggest it is. It can mean merely "conspicuous." In such use it is more or less interchangeable with blatant: • ... his son is a flagrant homosexual —Saturday Rev., 8 Jan. 1955 • ... let's say a blatant homosexual —Merle Miller, Saturday Rev., 2 Jan. 1971 • There is no more flagrant example of poetic diction —Irving Babbitt, The New Laokoon, 1910 • ... the poeticism was real poetry, and it was far from shamefaced, in fact it was blatant —Dwight Macdonald, in The Film, 1968 In summary, while blatant and flagrant may both mean merely "conspicuous," blatant is usually used of someone, some action, or something that attracts disapproving attention: • The most blatant instance is provided by the recent colloquial use of like whenever the speaker halts for an idea —Barzun 1985 Flagrant is used in the same way but usually carries a heavier weight of violated morality: • ... this was a very flagrant instance of filial disobedience and rebellion —Thomas Love Peacock, Nightmare Abbey, 1818 We recently heard the announcer of a hockey game refer to "a blatant hook"—hooking is a common infraction in ice hockey—that the referee failed to call. A generation earlier he would probably have used flagrant. The fact is that the use of blatant is now growing faster than that offlagrant. In another generation, perhaps, the two words will be more frequently interchangeable than they are today. |
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