Extra word(s) of the week

spat and flout

Two words today because the first, coming hard on the heels of beef, felt a bit samey, so I’ve changed things up (see more below) and thrown in an extra…

I heard a female journalist on the radio last week saying that while out running she had been spat on by a man, and, unspeakably, 10% of women runners surveyed said the same had happened to them. Just vile! Days later, more spat on the airwaves – this time between Elon and Donald as their bromance hastily unravelled.

This kind of spat is defined as a trivial dispute or tiff - even the dictionary seems to convey its derision. It comes from 19^th century US slang, and its etymology is said to be ‘by imitative formation’ - essentially its meaning echoes the sound it might make (a sharp slap or smack). Like sizzle, splash or faff. One of its earliest mentions, in Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of English Language (1828), the entry reads, ‘Spat, a petty combat; a little quarrel or dissension’. Again, dismissive with a hint of eye-roll.

Sticking with political machinations, another word I heard this week seems relevant. Flout. It was, actually, a restaurant recommendation. A rising star of the pizza world, Flout! Somewhat improbably, based, not in Brooklyn or Bologna, but in Belfast. Its name explained on the website as ‘a nod to our disregard for conventional pizza’. But for the mention of pizza, I’m not sure that there’s a better definition of flout.

The OED proposes a more mocking, jeering sense than mere disregard. Perhaps, but in fact flout reached its apex of usage during Covid, one assumes particularly during the lockdowns, when a lack of regard for the guidelines, rather than anything more vindictive, led to widespread flouting. Media coverage of Messrs Musk and Trump and their (more OED-style) flouting of pretty much any and every convention might yet top the word’s 2020 usage figures. Another US President, the late Jimmy Carter, famously confused flout and flaunt in a 1970s speech where he decried the Iranian regime, saying, ‘The government of Iran must realize that it cannot flaunt, with impunity, the express will and law of the world community.’

Flout has an unusual etymology. It likely comes from flute which, as well as its musical connotations, could mean to deride or mock, with origins in the Dutch fluiten. Dating back to the 16^th century, it was one of Shakespeare’s favourite words. He pairs it with scout – which then also meant mock – in The Tempest. The jester, Trinculo, offers the perfect sign-off:

Flout 'em and scout 'em,

And scout 'em and flout 'em.

Thought is free.