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blatant

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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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)).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈbleɪtənt/, enPR: blā'tənt
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪtənt

Adjective

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blatant (comparative more blatant, superlative most blatant)

  1. Obvious, on show; unashamed; loudly obtrusive or offensive.
    Synonyms: ostentatious; see also Thesaurus:gaudy, Thesaurus:obvious
    Antonym: furtive
    • 1855–1859, Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington:
      Glory, that blatant word, which haunts some military minds like the bray of the trumpet.
    • 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:
      London died away in draggled taverns and dreary scrubs, and then was unaccountably born again in blazing high streets and blatant hotels.
    • 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXVIII, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly[1], volume 188, number 26, archived from the original on 6 June 2019, page 18:
      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.
  2. (archaic) Bellowing; disagreeably clamorous; sounding loudly and harshly.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.