Blatant vs. flagrant

Blatant vs. flagrant

Blatant는 (1) 두드러지게 눈에 띄는, 혹은 (2) 악의적으로 눈에 띄는 이라는 뜻을 가지고 있습니다. "악의적"인 것이 blatant의 한 특성이라고 할 수 있겠지만 "눈에 띄다" 라는 부분에 중점을 더 두어야 합니다. 

Flagrant는 (1) 두드러지게 나쁜, 악의적인, 혹은 (2) 도덕적으로 부끄러운 이라는 뜻을 지니고 있습니다. 따라서 flagrant한 특성을 가진 어떠한 것은 "두드러지는 면"도 있지만 "악의적이고 나쁜 특성"에 더 중점을 두고 뜻을 풀이해야 합니다. 두 단어의 의미가 크게 차이나지 않는 것 처럼 보이지만 문맥에서는 확실히 구분 가능합니다. 

Examples

1. 아래 예문은 blatant보단 flagrant를 써야 합니다. 예시에서는 "악의적으로 두드러지는"이 아닌 "두드러지게 악의적인" 이 중심 표현으로 쓰였기 때문입니다. 

James’ camp has denounced the suit as a blatant attempt to capitalize on the attention LeBron will receive in the run-up to his announcement tonight. [The Hollywood Gossip]

Any reasonable person would agree that what these men did outside the Philadelphia polling place was clearly an attempt at voter intimidation and a blatant violation of the Voter Rights Act. [SmallGovTimes]

A city schools superintendent is independently trying to open up charter schools that would compete for the same struggling students served by her own district — a blatant conflict of interest, critics charge. [New York Post]

2. 그리고 다음 예문에서는 "노골적으로 나쁜, 악의적인"이 아닌  "확연하게 눈에 띄는"으로 쓰였기 때문에 flagrant보다 blatant로 써야 더 적합합니다. 

Some movies seem so blatant an effort to appeal to a specific target audience that they ought to come with a viewers’ advisory warning. [USA  Today]

With pressure for video replay mounting after two blatant missed calls at the World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said soccer’s governing body will reopen the issue after the tournament. [NBC]

3. 세 번째 예문에서는 blatant로 써야 더 적합한데, 그 이유는 아래 상황의 행동이 "도덕적으로 옳지않은 상황"이 아닌 "명백함이 드러나는" 뜻을 지니기 때문입니다. 

The blatant “F**ck U” caught in press shots is very clear and further supports opinions of Lilo’s roguish approach to her legal predicament. [The Wrap]

We hesitate to even include Suà¡rez’s blatant handball on this list … [Vanity Fair]

4. 마지막으로 아래 예문에서는 flagrant로 써야 더 적합합니다. 문장에서 사건의 "명백함"이 아닌 "뻔뻔스러움, 노골적인 행동"에 중점이 더해졌기 때문입니다. 

But eventually things turned bad. Prosecutors in Warsaw charged him with flagrant mismanagement of a chain of hard-currency exchange stores, and police wanted to question him about illegal car trading. [Washington Post SpyTalk Blog]

A second United States senator complained Thursday about American military assistance to Somalia’s government, which the United Nations considers one of the most flagrant users of child soldiers in the  world. [NYT]

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[Original Text]

Blatant vs. flagrant

Blatant means (1) glaringly conspicuous, or (2) offensively noticeable. Though a blatant thing may be offensive, what’s important is its conspicuousness. Flagrantmeans conspicuously bad, offensive, or reprehensible. So, while flagrant things are typically conspicuous, the badness or offensiveness is what’s key. The difference can be subtle, but most things that are blatant or flagrant are more clearly one or the other.

Examples

In the following examples, flagrant would make more sense than blatant because the thing being described is conspicuously bad, not offensively conspicuous:

James’ camp has denounced the suit as a blatant attempt to capitalize on the attention LeBron will receive in the run-up to his announcement tonight. [The Hollywood Gossip]

Any reasonable person would agree that what these men did outside the Philadelphia polling place was clearly an attempt at voter intimidation and a blatant violation of the Voter Rights Act. [SmallGovTimes]

A city schools superintendent is independently trying to open up charter schools that would compete for the same struggling students served by her own district — a blatant conflict of interest, critics charge. [New York Post]

And in the following examples, the thing being described is glaringly conspicuous but not overtly bad or offensive, so blatant works well:

Some movies seem so blatant an effort to appeal to a specific target audience that they ought to come with a viewers’ advisory warning. [USA  Today]

With pressure for video replay mounting after two blatant missed calls at the World Cup, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said soccer’s governing body will reopen the issue after the tournament. [NBC]

In these examples, blatant might make more sense than flagrant because the actions are more obvious than reprehensible:

The flagrant “F**ck U” caught in press shots is very clear and further supports opinions of Lilo’s roguish approach to her legal predicament. [The Wrap]

We hesitate to even include Suà¡rez’s flagrant handball on this list … [Vanity Fair]

And in these examples, flagrant works because the emphasis is on the actions’ reprehensibility rather than on their obviousness:

But eventually things turned bad. Prosecutors in Warsaw charged him with flagrant mismanagement of a chain of hard-currency exchange stores, and police wanted to question him about illegal car trading. [Washington Post SpyTalk Blog]

A second United States senator complained Thursday about American military assistance to Somalia’s government, which the United Nations considers one of the most flagrant users of child soldiers in the world. [NYT]

Original text from: http://grammarist.com/usage/blatant-flagrant/