different between brazen vs flippant

English

Alternative forms

• brasen

Etymology

From Middle English brasen, from Old English bræsen (“brazen, of brass”); equivalent to brass +? -en (compare golden).

The word originally meant “of brass”; the figurative verb sense (as in brazen it out (“face impudently”)) dates from the 1550s (perhaps evoking the sense “face like brass, unmoving and not showing shame”), and the adjective sense “impudent” from the 1570s. Compare bold as brass.

Pronunciation

• enPR: br?z?n, IPA^(key): /?b?e?z?n/
• Rhymes: -e?z?n
• Hyphenation: braz?en

Adjective

brazen (comparative more brazen, superlative most brazen)

1. (archaic) Pertaining to, made of, or resembling brass (in color or strength).
   • 1786, Francis Grose, Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time, London: Printed for S. Hooper […], OCLC 745209064; republished as Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time, volume II, new [2nd] edition with material additions and improvements, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […]; & G. Kearsley, […], 1801, OCLC 435979550, page 262:

     Brazen or rather copper swords seem to have been next introduced; these in process of time, workmen learned to harden by the addition of some other metal or mineral, which rendered them almost equal in temper to iron.
2. Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.
   • 1697, Virgil; John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. Translated into English Verse; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 839376905; republished as The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden. In Three Volumes, volume III, 5th edition, London: Printed by Jacob Tonson […], 1721, OCLC 181805247, book IX, page 822, lines 667–670:

     And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouze the sleepy War. / The Souldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heav'n, from Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds.
3. (archaic) Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute.
4. Shamelessly shocking and offensive; audacious; impudent; barefaced; immodest, unblushing. [from 1570s.]

Derived terms

• brazen age
• brazen bull
• brazenface
• brazen-faced
• brazen sea
• brazenly
• brazenness

Translations

See also

• effrontery

Verb

brazen (third-person singular simple present brazens, present participle brazening, simple past and past participle brazened)

1. (intransitive) To turn a brass color.
2. (transitive) Generally followed by out or through: to carry through in a brazen manner; to act boldly despite embarrassment, risk, etc. [from 1550s.]

Derived terms

• brazen it out

Translations

References

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).