blatant
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbleɪtənt/
enpr: blā'tənt
rhymes: -eɪtənt
Forms: form: more blatant
form: most blatant
Etymology: Coined by Edmund Spenser in 1596 in "blatant beast". Probably a variation of *blatand (Scots blaitand (“bleating”)), present participle of blate, a variation of bleat, equivalent to blate + -ant. See bleat. In addition, it is suggested by Latin blatiō (“speak like a fool, prate”), which is rare, and so the similitude may be just coincidental.
Compare typologically Bulgarian вопиющ (vopijušt), Russian вопию́щий (vopijúščij) (akin to вопи́ть (vopítʹ)).
Senses: examples: text: Glory, that blatant word, which haunts some military minds like the bray of the trumpet.
ref: 1855–1859, Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington:
text: London died away in draggled taverns and dreary scrubs, and then was unaccountably born again in blazing high streets and blatant hotels.
ref: 1910 July 23, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Blue Cross”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and Company, published 1911, →OCLC:
text: He tried to think out what those two men had which so strangely attracted her. They both had a vulgar facetiousness which tickled her simple sense of humour, and a certain coarseness of nature; but what took her perhaps was the blatant sexuality which was their most marked characteristic.
ref: 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXVIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
text: WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, […]. They also exposed the blatant discrepancy between the west's professed values and actual foreign policies.
ref: 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 18:
synonyms: word: ostentatious
word: bedizened
word: blatant
word: blingish
word: brash
word: catchpenny
word: chichi
word: chintzy
word: crass
word: crude
word: flashy
word: flaunting
word: florid
word: flossy
word: froufrou
word: garish
word: gauche
word: gaudy
word: gay
word: glaring
word: gross
word: gussied up
word: hideous
word: kitschy
word: loud
word: meretricious
word: obtrusive
word: ostentatious
word: pizazzy
word: pretentious
word: ritzy
word: raffish
word: showy
word: snazzy
word: splendiferous
word: tacky
word: tasteless
word: tawdry
word: tinselly
word: too much
word: unbecoming
word: untasteful
word: vain
word: whorish
word: zesty
word: apparent
word: arrant
word: undoubted
word: glaring
word: bait
word: blatant
word: clear
word: clear as a bell
word: clear as day
word: clear cut
word: crystal clear
word: cut and dried
word: decided
word: elucidate
word: evident
word: eyely
word: intuitive
word: manifest
word: notable
word: noticeable
word: obvious
word: open-and-shut
word: ostensible
word: palpable
word: patent
word: plain
word: plain as a haystack
word: plain as a pikestaff
word: plain as day
word: plain as Dunstable highway
word: plain as porridge
word: plain as print
word: plain as Salisbury
word: plain as the nose on one's face
word: prima facie
word: res ipsa loquitur
word: straightforward
word: undissembled
antonyms: furtive
glosses: Obvious, on show; unashamed; loudly obtrusive or offensive.
examples: text: A monster, which the Blatant beast men call.
ref: 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37:
text: harsh and blatant tones
ref: 1859, Richard Henry Dana Jr., To Cuba and Back:
text: A blatant bugle tears my afternoons. / Out clump the clumsy Tommies by platoons, / Trying to keep in step with rag-time tunes, / But I sit still; I've done my drill.
ref: 1918, Wilfred Owen, The Calls:
glosses: Bellowing; disagreeably clamorous; sounding loudly and harshly.
Derived terms: blatantly
blatantness