flippant

English

Etymology

1595, from Northern English dialectal flippand (“prattling, babbling, glib”), present participle of flip (“to babble”), of North Germanic origin. Cognate with Icelandic fleipa (“to babble, prattle”), Swedish dialectal flepa (“to talk nonsense”). Alteration of -and suffix (a variant of the participial -ing) to -ant probably due to influence from words in -ant.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) IPA^(key): /ˈflɪ.pənt/

Adjective

flippant (comparative more flippant, superlative most flippant)

1. (archaic) glib; speaking with ease and rapidity
   • November 5, 1673, Isaac Barrow, sermon on the Gunpowder Treason

     It becometh good men, in such cases, to be pleasantly flippant and free in their speech.

2. (chiefly dialectal) nimble; limber.
3. Showing disrespect through a casual attitude, levity, and a lack of due seriousness; pert.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

     a sort of flippant, vain discourse

   • 1998, Sylvia Brownrigg, The Metaphysical Touch

     The conversations had grown more adult over the years—she was less flippant, at least.

   • 2000, Anthony Howard and Jason Cowley, Decline and Fall, New Statesman, March 13, 2000

     In the mid-1950s we both wrote for the same weekly, where her contributions were a good deal more serious and less flippant than mine.

   • 2004, Allen Carr, The Easy Way to Stop Smoking, page 147

     Our society treats smoking flippantly as a slightly distasteful habit that can injure your health. It is not. It is drug addiction.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:cheeky

Antonyms

• serious

Derived terms

• flippancy

Translations

lacking respect

• Bulgarian: непочтителен (bg) (nepočtitelen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 輕率 (zh), 轻率 (zh) (qīngshuài), 無禮 (zh), 无礼 (zh) (wúlǐ)

• Dutch: oneerbiedig (nl), spottend (nl)
• Esperanto: impertinenta
• Finnish: epäkunnioittava (lacking respect), epäasiallinen (lacking seriousness)
• French: désinvolte (fr), cavalier (fr)
• German: schnodderig (de), vorlaut (de), frech (de), oberflächlich (de), leichtfertig (de)
• Hungarian: pimasz (hu), nyegle (hu), pikírt (hu), pökhendi (hu)

• Icelandic: virðingarlaus m
• Italian: impertinente (it), disinvolto (it), faceto (it), frivolo (it), irriverente (it), sapientone m, fanfarone (it) m, spaccone (it) m, gradasso (it) m
• Japanese: ぶしつけな (bushitsuke-na), 生意気な (ja) (なまいきな, namaiki-na)
• Maori: ngahangaha
• Norwegian: eplekjekk, flåset, flåsete
• Portuguese: insolente (pt), impertinente (pt)
• Russian: де́рзкий (ru) (dérzkij), на́глый (ru) (náglyj), наха́льный (ru) (naxálʹnyj), неуважительный (ru) (neuvažitelʹnyj)
• Spanish: fresco (es), insolente (es)

See also

• irreverent
• pert
• facetious
• frivolous

Further reading

• flippant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• flippant in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911.

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fli.pɑ̃/

Adjective

flippant (feminine singular flippante, masculine plural flippants, feminine plural flippantes)

1. (Europe, informal) Surprising.
2. (Europe, informal) Worrying; scary.

Verb

flippant

1. present participle of flipper

Further reading

• “flippant” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).