Etymology

flaunt

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Today it means: To wave or flutter smartly in the wind. Full definition →

North Germanic
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flaunt · verb, noun1

  1. North Germanic · derived from
  2. English todayflaunt

Of North Germanic origin. Perhaps related to Norwegian flanta (“to show off, wander about”), Icelandic flana (“to rush about, act rashly or heedlessly”) and then also to French flâner (“to wander around, loiter”). Alternatively, it could be related to Swedish flankt (“loosely, flutteringly”) (compare English flaunt-a-flaunt), from flanka (“waver, hang and wave about, ramble”), a nasalised variant of flakka (“to waver”), related to Middle English flacken (“to move to and fro, flutter, palpitate”). See flack.

flaunt · verb2

By confusion with flout.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.