different between bald vs flippant

English

Etymology

From Middle English bald, balde, belde, ballid, balled (“bald”), of uncertain origin. Probably formed from Middle English bal, balle (“ball, round object, knoll, head”). Compare with Old Danish bældet (“bald”).

Alternate etymology has Gothic ????????????????- (bala-, “shining, grey (of body)”), Old English b?l (“fire, flame; funeral pyre”) (both from Proto-Germanic *b?l?), Albanian balë (“white spot on the forehead”) and ball (“forehead”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??ld/, [b???d] Non-standard: IPA^(key): /b??ld/, [b??ld]
• (US) IPA^(key): /b?ld/; (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /b?ld/
• Rhymes: -??ld
• Homophone: balled

Adjective

bald (comparative balder, superlative baldest)

1. Having no hair, fur or feathers.

   Synonym: hairless

   Antonyms: faxed, haired

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces.

2. (specifically) Having no hair on the head.
3. (by extension) Denuded of any covering.

4. Of tyres: whose surface is worn away.
5. (of a statement or account) Unembellished.
6. (of a statement) Without evidence or support being provided.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

bald (plural balds)

1. (Appalachia) A mountain summit or crest that lacks forest growth despite a warm climate conducive to such, as is found in many places in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Verb

bald (third-person singular simple present balds, present participle balding, simple past and past participle balded)

1. (intransitive) To become bald.

See also

• callow
• nott

Translations

Further reading

• bald on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Appalachian balds on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ABDL, DLAB, blad

German

Etymology

From Middle High German balde, from Old High German baldo, adverb of bald, pald, from Proto-West Germanic *balþ, from Proto-Germanic *balþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *b?el-. Cognate with Dutch boud, English bold.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /balt/
• Homophone: ballt

Adverb

bald (comparative eher or früher, superlative am ehesten or frühesten)

1. soon, near in time

   Synonyms: demnächst, in Kürze, zeitnah

2. almost

   Synonyms: fast, beinahe

Derived terms

• alsbald
• bis bald
• in Bälde
• sobald

Related terms

• -bold

Further reading

• “bald” in Duden online

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?ld/, [b??d]

Adjective

bald (Anglian)

1. Alternative form of beald

Declension

Old High German

Alternative forms

• pald

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *balþ, from Proto-Germanic *balþaz, whence also Old English bald, Old Norse ballr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bald/

Adjective

bald

1. bold, quick

Derived terms

• bald?
• baldo

Descendants

• Middle High German: balt

References

• Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *balþ, from Proto-Germanic *balþaz, whence also Old English bald, Old Norse ballr.

Adjective

bald (comparative baldoro, superlative baldost)

1. bold, fearless

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: bald, bold, balt, bolt
  • German Low German: bold, boll

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): /?fl?.p?nt/

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

See also

• irreverent
• pert
• facetious
• frivolous

Further reading

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

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fli.p??/

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).