latrant

English

Etymology

From Latin lātrans (“barking, ranting”), present participle of lātrāre (“to bark, to rant”). Equivalent to latrate +‎ -ant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈleɪtɹənt/, /ˈleɪtɹænt/

Adjective

latrant (comparative more latrant, superlative most latrant)

1. (now rare) Synonym of barking, particularly (figurative) snarling, bitterly or angrily complaining.
   • 1702, Cotton Mather, “Book VII (Ecclesarium Prælia: […])”, in Magnalia Christi Americana: Or, the Ecclesiastical History of New-England, from Its First Planting in the Year 1620. unto the Year of Our Lord, 1698. […], London: […] Thomas Parkhurst, […], →OCLC, page 82, column 1:

     And that the Balant and Latrant Noiſes of that ſort of People may be for ever Silenced, […]

   • [1706, Edward Phillips, edited by John Kersey, The New World of English Words, or, a General Dictionary, London: Printed for J[ohn] Philips, s.v, unnumbered page, column 1:

     Latrant, barking; as A Latrant Writer, an Author that does nothing but bark and snarl at others.]

   • 1714, Thomas Tickell, “A Fragment of a Poem on Hunting”, in The poetical works of Thomas Parnell, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, published 1854, page 66:

     Thy care be the first the various gifts to trace
     The minds and genius of the latrant race.

   • 1737, Matthew Green, The Spleen, and Other Poems, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, […] , published 1796, page 34:

     Whoſe latrant ſtomachs oft moleſt
     The deep-laid plans their dreams ſuggeſt;

   • 1856, Lorenzo Altisonant [pseudonym; Samuel Klinefelter Hoshour], Letters to Squire Pedant, in the East, Cincinnati: Applegate & Co., Letter No. II, page 13:

     Not gyved with connubial relations, I entered upon my migration entirely isolated, with the exception of a canine quadruped whose mordacious, latrant, lusorious, and venatic qualities, are without parity.

   • 1863, Roger Quinn, The Heather Lintie: […] , Dumfries: James Maxwell, page 21:

     Thy latrant muse aye glooms sae sour;
     The ither day her gipsy glower

Noun

latrant (plural latrants)

1. (rare, obsolete) One who is barking, a dog, (figurative) a complainer.
   • 1860, William Hamilton, “Appendix”, in H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, editors, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume IV, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 279:

     Thus—All triangles are all trilaterals. 2°, It may designate a class considered as undivided, though not positively thought as taken in its whole extent; and this may be articulately denoted by (:.). Thus—The triangle is the trilateral;—The dog is the latrant.— (Here note the use of the definite article in English, Greek, French, German,^α &c.)

Related terms

• latrate
• latration
• oblatrant

 

References

• “latrant, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1902.
• “latrant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Latin

Verb

lātrant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of lātrō