Vive la difference between ‘flaunt’ and ‘flout’
July 25th, 2008 at 07:00am Barry Wood
Early in Mel Brooks’ first movie, “The Producers,” the down-on-his-luck character played by Zero Mostel looks out a window to see a white Rolls-Royce and shouts, “That’s it, baby, when you got it, flaunt it!”
The verbs “flaunt” and “flout” have been known to cause confusion. “Flaunt,” used correctly in the film, is “to make a gaudy, ostentatious, conspicuous, impudent or defiant display.”
It’s the defiant aspect that also appears in “flout”: “to mock or scoff at; show scorn or contempt for” or “to openly disregard, as by rejecting, defying or ignoring.”
Adding to the potential for crossover, it’s often people who are flaunting their own perceived authority who flout that of others –Â the leader of a nation who openly disregards its laws, for instance.
I prefer emphasizing how the two words are different: To “flaunt” is to show off, and to “flout” is to show contempt.
Entry Filed under: perplexing pairs
4 Comments Add your own
1. Leonardo duh Vinci | July 27th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Recently you have cited Mel Brooks and Monte Python and their humor, maybe you are old enough (but I doubt it) to remember Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Bob and Ray. Evidently you are a “conny sewer” of words collected to form a funny thought.
2. Barry Wood | July 29th, 2008 at 1:18 am
I have an album by Nichols and May and a collection of cassettes from Bob and Ray’s radio shows — good stuff. It’s not easy to find subtle humor these days.
When I was younger, I listened to a lot of comedy albums. My top influences included Stan Freberg, Jonathan Winters and recordings of the Hal Holbrook show “Mark Twain Tonight!”
I’m making my way through a book about these folks and others called “Seriously Funny: Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s,” by Gerald Nachman. There is so much material that it can be slow-going, but there’s a ton of information and it touches off such wonderful memories.
For what it’s worth: People who are in the humor business often have very sad lives.
3. ajay pal | October 20th, 2008 at 2:39 am
what is the difference between flaunt and flout
4. Barry Wood | October 21st, 2008 at 1:59 am
To ajay pal:
I’m assuming that my original explanation doesn’t work for you, so I’ll offer this from “Words on Words” by John B. Bremner:
“To ‘flaunt’ is to wave proudly, to show off, to display ostentatiously, boastfully (’The new graduate flaunted his diploma as he marched through the faculty after commencement’). To ‘flout’ is to defy, to mock, to treat with contempt, to scoff at (”The new graduate flouted tradition by wearing only shorts at commencement’).”
It’s getting tougher to maintain the distinction, however, as Bryan A. Garner observes in “Garner’s Modern American Usage”: “Confusion about these terms is so distressingly common that some dictionaries have thrown in the towel and now treat ‘flaunt’ as a synonym of ‘flout.’ ”
If you rely on one of those dictionaries, you may well ask yet again, “What’s the difference?”
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed