Ancestors

Toot

Written by Akshay on 2025-01-20 at 12:33

Book for the Day: Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy.

In this less famous but more important work, Machiavelli advises citizens of a Republic on how to keep their freedom!

Includes fine advice, like “get rid of those who would flaunt the Rule of Law” and “don’t allow a class of people to get so wealthy, they can effortlessly corrupt your Republic”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discourses_on_Livy

[#]Bookstodon #Democracy #RuleOfLaw

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Descendants

Written by SellaTheChemist on 2025-01-20 at 13:04

@Akshay Great recommendation. But I think you mean "flout" (although those currently flouting it seem to flaunt the fact!)

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Written by Akshay on 2025-01-20 at 13:12

@sellathechemist

Looked it up. According to the Merriam Webster online dictionary, the flaunt/flout confusion was made so long ago, “treating contemptuously” is now an official secondary meaning of “flaunt”, and “flaunt the rules” is an official example in the dictionary

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flaunt

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Written by Solar 🌄Garden on 2025-01-20 at 13:55

@Akshay @sellathechemist

Aware that Merriam-Webster an American company

I checked it in wiktionary

"Etymology 2

-- By confusion with flout. "

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flaunt

and then tried to so in OED, only to be reminded yet again that they had succumbed to the temptation to use their historical privilege and exclude most internet searches whilst putting up pages full of abstraction that I would expect to be in small menus.

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Written by SellaTheChemist on 2025-01-20 at 19:11

@wavesculptor @Akshay To my astonishment, the OED does not list "to flout convention" or "flout the law" as possible transitive meanings. They simply say "To mock, jeer, insult; to express contempt for, either in word or action."

When you look at flaunt they have the following entry at the bottom:

"In the sense of flout v. 1.

This usage clearly arose by confusion, and is widely considered erroneous. (1923)"

And, yes, language evolves. But it's sad to lose subtleties. Like "may" and "might"… 

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Written by Solar 🌄Garden on 2025-01-20 at 19:56

@sellathechemist @Akshay Hah - institutional access? Well done. Maybe OED sign-up has limited free use but I was not going to give them all my data only to be given a bill as the last step.

Your read-up poses the possibility the 2 words DID start off a similar way but the flout became the "abusive" flaunt. However, in the usage of "overtly avoid or defy", it becomes part of a nice subtle progression like

evade-ignore-defy-flout

There's a whole world inside that word "may"! Using it as a disguised "must" was still heard in my childhood, and lit. of that era. Oof.

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