Flagrans

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a strong, noticeable, and often offensive scent or odor
2. being glaringly evident in a particular manner, often related to wrongdoing
3. characterized by an unmistakable quality that draws attention, particularly in negative contexts

Etymology: Latin "flagrans" is the present participle of "flagrare," "to blaze or burn," so it originally described a fire or something glowing with heat. English "flagrant" descends from this root, and its early senses were literal, like burning or blazing. The figurative sense of a fault so glaring it cannot be hidden, like a fire that cannot be overlooked, came later. The Latin root survives in a phrase English borrowed whole: "in flagrante delicto," meaning "in the blazing crime." Here "flagrante" is the ablative form of the same participle. Roman legal Latin used the phrase for someone caught in the act of wrongdoing, and English later adopted it with the same sense.