flaunt

Etymology

The verb is of unknown origin.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED notes that English monosyllables with this ending are, except perhaps gaunt, all from French, yet no French word is known that could be the source;^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline likewise find the form French-looking.^[4][8] The OED suggests an imitative coinage with a vague memory of fly, flout and vaunt;^[2] Barnhart allows a blend of fly or flounce and vaunt,^[4] and Klein takes it as probably a blend of flout and vaunt.^[9] Others look to Scandinavian: Merriam-Webster Unabridged calls it probably of Scandinavian origin, akin to the dialectal Norwegian flanta (“to gad about”) and to Old Norse flana (“to rush heedlessly”),^[10] and Collins and Dictionary.com compare the same Norwegian verb.^[11][12] Skeat added Danish flane (“to flirt”) and the dialectal Swedish flankt (“loosely, flutteringly”), from flanka (“to waver”);^[13] Etymonline derives that word from flakka (“to waver”), related to flag.^[8] The OED and Barnhart doubt any such link, given how late the English word appears;^[2][4] the OED also cites Bavarian flandern (“to flutter, flaunt”).^[2] Weekley wondered about a nasalized form of German flattern (“to flutter”).^[14] Liberman, reviewing these guesses, notes that 19th-century editions of Webster's dictionary called it "doubtless of Celtic origin" and long cited a Gothic verb meaning "to boast", and he leaves it unexplained, since so many English verbs beginning with the same two letters are sound-symbolic or imitative.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of people, to walk about showing off one's finery, to parade in gaudy clothes: 1566, in Thomas Drant's translation of Horace.^{[2][4][8][10]}

Semantic evolution

From 1576, in Gascoigne's Steel Glass, the verb was used of plumes and banners waving gaily, and of plants waving their blossoms;^[2] Weekley notes that this use, with the phrase flaunt-a-flaunt, was very common in the late 16th century.^[14] From 1590 things could flaunt by being gaudy or glaringly conspicuous.^[2] A noun of the same date meant showy dress or finery, as in Shakespeare's "my borrowed flaunts" in The Winter's Tale, and was obsolete by 1616;^[2][10][16] the noun for the act of flaunting is recorded from before 1625.^[2][8] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to make a fluttering show in apparel", quoting Milton's "flaunting honeysuckle".^[16] The transitive sense, to display something showily, came only in the 19th century: 1822 in the OED, 1827 in Barnhart and Etymonline.^[2][4][8] It is now the usual sense.^[5] From 1923 the OED also records flaunt used for flout, to treat with contempt,^[2] a use that Liberman explains by the likeness in sound and the shared suggestion of display and challenge.^[15] In Scotland, Ireland, Yorkshire and the Isle of Wight, flaunt or flant meant to gad about, especially to strut about gaudily dressed, and in Ayrshire a flaunty person was flighty or capricious.^[17]

Timeline

• 1566 – of people, to parade in fine or gaudy clothes.^[2][4][10]
• 1576 – of plumes, banners or plants, to wave gaily.^[2]
• 1590 – of things, to be gaudy or glaringly conspicuous; noun, showy dress, finery (obsolete by 1616).^[2]
• before 1625 – noun, the act or habit of flaunting.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1620s.^[8]
• 1822 – transitive, to display something ostentatiously.^[2] Barnhart and Etymonline date it 1827.^[4][8]
• 1923 – in the sense of flout.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To display something ostentatiously; to show off: He flaunted his new watch at every meeting.^{[11][10][2][12]}
2. To display oneself conspicuously or boldly; to parade.^[12][10][5]
3. Of a flag or the like: to wave or flutter showily.^[11][10][2]
4. To treat a rule or law with contempt; to flout, a use that many regard as an error.^[12][2][11]

Noun

1. The act of flaunting; a showy display.^[11][10][2]
2. (obsolete, 1590–1616) Showy dress; finery.^[2][10][5]

Word family

• flaunter
• flauntingly
• flaunty
• unflaunted

Related words

• flout
• vaunt

Usage notes

Usage guides keep flaunt, to show off, apart from flout, to show contempt for: you flaunt your wealth but flout a rule.^[18][11] The American Heritage Dictionary notes that flaunt in the sense of flout has long been used even by educated writers, but Collins calls it a mistake.^[18][11] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins stresses that the two words are not related.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c d Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Liberman, Anatoly, The Oxford Etymologist (blog column), OUPblog, blog.oup.com, p. "An etymological cul-de-sac: the verbs “flaunt” and “flout”", 2 August 2023
16. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
19. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press