different between brash vs flippant

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?æ?/
• Rhymes: -æ?

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Perhaps from Scots brash, brasch (“a violent onset; an attack or assault”). Perhaps also related to Dutch bars (“stern; strict”), German barsch (“harsh; unfriendly”), Danish barsk (“harsh; rough; tough”), Swedish barsk (“harsh; impetuous”).

Adjective

brash (comparative brasher or more brash, superlative brashest or most brash)

1. (of people or behaviour) Overly bold or self-assertive to the point of being insensitive, tactless or impudent; shameless.

   Synonyms: audacious, brassy, brazen, cocky, undiplomatic

   • 1902, Opie Read, The Starbucks, Chicago: Laird & Lee, Chapter , p. 210,^[1]

     Mrs. Mayfield looked away, and the girl stricken with remorse, hastened to her and said: “There, I have been too brash, haven’t I? You must forgive me for I didn’t intend to be brash.”

     “Brash, my dear? What do you mean by that?”

     She laughed. “Why, I thought everybody know’d what brash meant. Well, it’s er—too quick to say somethin’ you oughtn’t to say.”

   • 1925, Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith, Chapter 17,^[2]

     Trouble with Silzer is, he’s too brash—shoots off his mouth too much—likes to hear himself talk.

   • 1958, Peter De Vries, Mackerel Plaza, Penguin, 1986, Chapter 14, p. 209,

     The American’s brash unconcern for nuance indicates a young and vigorous country, the Briton’s clipped speech an ancient, proverbial reserve.

   • 2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah, New York: Knopf, Chapter 54,^[3]

     Edusco liked him, he could tell; he imagined Edusco talking about him in a gathering of other self-made Igbo men, men who were brash and striving, who juggled huge businesses and supported vast extended families.

2. (of actions) Overly bold, impetuous or rash.

   Synonyms: foolhardy, reckless

   • 1905, Andy Adams, The Outlet, Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Chapter 2, p. 22,^[4]

     […] just because you’re a little hot under the collar, don’t do anything brash, for fear you may regret it afterward.

   • 1960, George O. Smith, “The Troublemakers,” Galaxy Science Fiction Volume 18, No. 4, April 1960, p. 156,^[5]

     Now, Mr. Reed, you’ve committed nothing but a brash act of bad taste by bypassing the standard channels.

3. (of things) Bold, bright or showy, often in a tasteless way.

   Synonyms: flashy, garish, loud, splashy; see also Thesaurus:gaudy

   brash colours; a brash perfume

   • 1963, Ian Fleming, Thrilling Cities, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter 1, “Hong Kong,”^[6]

     There are scores of brash and noisy bars along Lockhart Street and in Wanchai and North Point (on the island) and throughout the back lanes of Kowloon […]

   • 1996, Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Englishman’s Boy, New York: Picador, 1998, Chapter 24, p. 243,^[7]

     The driveway is filled with vehicles parked bumper to bumper and the house is lit up like I’ve never seen it before, brash yellow light streaming from every window on every floor, and the tinny, nasal sound of gramophone jazz trumpeting inside.

Translations

Noun

brash (countable and uncountable, plural brashes)

1. A rash or eruption; a sudden or transient fit of sickness.
2. A sudden burst of rain.
3. (obsolete) An attack or assault.

Derived terms

• water brash
• weaning brash

Verb

brash (third-person singular simple present brashes, present participle brashing, simple past and past participle brashed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To disturb.

Etymology 2

Compare American English bresk, brusk (“fragile, brittle”).

Adjective

brash (comparative brasher or more brash, superlative brashest or most brash)

1. (US, colloquial, dated) Brittle (said e.g. of wood or vegetables).

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bartlett to this entry?)

Noun

brash (countable and uncountable, plural brashes)

1. Leaf litter of small leaves and little twigs as found under a hedge.
2. (geology) Broken and angular rock fragments underlying alluvial deposits.
   • 1839, Sir Charles Lyell, Elements of Geology

     Alluvium differs from the rubble or brash , just described , as being composed of sand and gravel , more or less rolled

3. Broken fragments of ice.
   • 1853, Elisha Kent Kane, The U. S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin

     The sea dashed in an angry surf over its inclined sides, rattling the icy fragments or “brash” against its irregular surface

Further reading

• brash in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Harbs, brahs, h bars, h-bars, hbars, shrab

Scots

Noun

brash (plural brashes)

1. illness, fit

Derived terms

• water brash

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).