blatant, a. (and n.)
(ˈbleɪtənt)
Also 6–7 blattant.
[Apparently invented by Spenser, and used by him as an epithet of the thousand-tongued monster begotten of Cerberus and Chimæra, the ‘blatant’ or ‘blattant beast’, by which he symbolized calumny. It has been suggested that he intended it as an archaic form of bleating (of which the 16th c. Sc. was blaitand), but this seems rather remote from the sense in which he used it. The L. blatīre to babble, may also be compared. (The a was probably short with Spenser: it is now always made long.)]
1. In the phrase ‘blat(t)ant beast’, taken from Spenser (cf. F.Q. v. xii. 37, 41; vi. i. 7, iii. 24, ix. 2, x. 1, xii. advt., xii. 2): see above.
| 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. xii. 37 Unto themselves they [Envie and Detraction] gotten had A monster which the blatant beast men call, A dreadful feend of gods and men ydrad. Ibid. vi. i. 7 ‘The blattant beast,’ quoth he, ‘I doe pursew.’ 1602 Return fr. Parnass. v. iv. (Arb.) 69 The Ile of Dogges, where the blattant beast doth rule and raigne. 1636 C. Fitzgeffrey Bless. Birthd. (1881) 128 That blatant beast So belched forth from his blaspheaming brest. a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 60 Cub of the Blatant Beast. 1768 Tucker Lt. Nat. I. 596 The blatant beast..with his unbridled tongue. 1812 Byron Ch. Har. i. xxvi. (Orig. MS.), Then burst the blatant beast [note, a figure for the mob], and roar'd, and raged. 1856 Miss Muloch J. Halifax (ed. 17) 340 He was one of the most ‘blatant-beasts’ of the Reign of Terror. |
2. fig. a. Of persons or their words: Noisy; offensively or vulgarly clamorous; bellowing.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Blatant, babling, twatling. 1674 Marvell Reh. Transp. ii. 371 You are a Blatant Writer and a Labrant. 1821 Southey Vis. Judgem. x. Wks. X. 223 Maledictions, and blatant tongues, and viperous hisses. 1872 Bagehot Physics & Pol. (1876) 92 Up rose a blatant Radical. 1874 H. Reynolds John Bapt. viii. 515 A blatant, insolent materialism threatens to engulf moral distinctions. |
b. Clamorous, making itself heard.
| 1790 Cowper Odyss. vii. 267 Not the less Hear I the blatant appetite demand Due sustenance. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola (1880) I. ii. xxix. 359 An orator who tickled the ears of the people blatant for some unknown good. 1866 Whipple Char. & Charac. Men 166 All agree in a common contempt blatant or latent. 1867 J. Macgregor Voy. Alone 65 A mass of human being whose want..misery, and filth are..patent to the eye, and blatant to the ear. |
c. In recent usage: obtrusive to the eye (rather than to the ear as in orig. senses); glaringly or defiantly conspicuous; palpably prominent or obvious.
| 1889 W. S. Gilbert Gondoliers ii, I write letters blatant On medicines patent. 1903 G. Gissing Private Papers H. Ryecroft 274 The blatant upstart who builds a church, lays out his money in that way not merely to win social consideration. 1912 G. B. Shaw Let. 19 Aug. in Shaw & Mrs. P. Campbell (1952) 38 You don't loathe the scenery for being prosy and mediocre in spite of its blatant picturesqueness as you do in Switzerland. 1930 Sayers & Eustace Documents in Case li. 246 The blatant way in which he had marked his trail..[etc.] were actions entirely inconsistent with the carelessness of an innocent man. 1937 H. Nicolson Helen's Tower ix. 191 If they were kept in the Museum..their blatant lack of human interest had caused me to pass them by. 1942 New Statesman 11 July 26/1 Mankind, he said, is led by half-truths or blatant lies. 1957 A. E. Coppard It's Me, O Lord! v. 55 The colonel..clad in a suit of blatant check, spats, and a monocle. 1957 Times 19 Dec. 4/3 A blatant piece of late tackling. |
3. a. Bleating, bellowing (or merely, loud-voiced).
| 1791 Cowper Iliad xxiii 39 Many a sheep and blatant goat. 1866 J. Rose Ecl. & Georg. Virg. 69 Rooks rejoicing, and the blatant herds. |
b. Noisily resonant, loud.
| 1816 Scott Old Mort. xiv, A blatant noise which rose behind them. 1867 Cornh. Mag. Jan. 30 The vibrating and blatant powers of a hundred instruments. |
† B. as n. One who has a blatant tongue. Obs.
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey Introd. Poem, Couch rabid Blatants, silence Surquedry. |