flamboyant

Pronunciation

• IPA: /flamˈbɔɪ.ənt/ (UK); /flæmˈbɔɪ.(j)ənt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French flamboyant (“flaming, wavy”),^[2][3] the present participle of flamboyer “to flame”,^{[4][2][3][5][6]} from Old French flambe (“flame”),^[4][3][5][6] a variant of flamme, from Latin flammula (“little flame”).^[3] This is a diminutive of flamma.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a late Gothic architectural style in France, with wavy, flame-like curves.^[3][7][2][4]

Semantic evolution

From flame-like tracery the word passed to things flamingly coloured,^[7][2] and then to anything showy or ornate,^[3][2] a development that followed French use.^[3] It is now used mostly of strikingly bold, showy people and behaviour.^[4][5][6][1]

Timeline

• 1832 – of the architectural style.^[3][7][2][5]
• 1851 – gorgeously coloured.^[7][2]
• 1870 – showy, ornate, by Etymonline's evidence;^[3] the OED and Barnhart date this sense 1879.^[7][2]
• 1876 – of a sword, wavy like a flame.^[7]
• 1879 – noun, plants with flame-coloured flowers, such as the royal poinciana.^[7][5]
• 1891 – flamboyance.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Showy and bold; given to ostentatious display.
2. Richly or brilliantly coloured.
3. Highly elaborate; ornate.
4. (architecture) Of the late French Gothic style with wavy, flame-like tracery.
5. Of a blade, forged in a wavy, flame-like shape.

Noun

1. The royal poinciana, a tropical tree with showy red flowers.

Word family

• flamboyance
• flamboyantly
• flamboyancy
• unflamboyant

Related words

• flame

References

1. [1] [2] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. [1] [2] [3] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press