flagitious

English

Etymology

From Old French flagitieux or Latin flāgitiōsus, both ultimately from flāgitium (“shameful crime”), related to flagrum (“whip”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, General American) IPA^(key): /fləˈdʒɪʃəs/

• Audio (US):

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Adjective

flagitious (comparative more flagitious, superlative most flagitious)

1. (literary) Guilty of terrible crimes; wicked, criminal.
   • 1716 Nov 7th, quoted from 1742, probably Alexander Pope, God's Revenge Against Punning, from Miscellanies, 3rd volume, page 227:

     This young Nobleman was not only a flagitious Punster himself, but was accessary to the Punning of others, by Consent, by Provocation, by Connivance, and by Defence of the Evil committed […] .

   • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XLIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 258:

     The duke found his soldiery half disciplined, flagitious, disorderly and inefficient: he rendered them, in his own words, a "perfect organ."

   • 2020 December 31, Kara Swisher, “Goodbye, Twitter Trump! And Other Predictions for 2021”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN:

     As flagitious as he can be, Mr. Trump has been a legitimate news figure and, thus, what he had to say should be aired.

2. (literary) Extremely brutal or wicked; heinous, monstrous.

   Synonyms: infamous, scandalous, nefarious, iniquitous

   • 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC, page 30:

     But if in Noble Minds ſome Dregs remain, / Not yet purg'd off, of Spleen and ſow'r Diſdain, / Diſcharge that Rage on more Provoking Crimes, / Nor fear a Dearth on theſe Flagitious Times.

   • 1824 December 9 (date written), Jeremy Bentham, “[Letter 3153] To the Catholic Association”, in Luke O’Sullivan, Catherine Fuller, editors, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, volume 12 (July 1824 to June 1828), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, published 2006, →ISBN, footer 5, page 73:

     Less extensively mischievous, tyrannicide would be less flagitious than populicide; murder of one, though he were a Secretary of State; or—but imagination must stop here—than murder of a promiscuous multitude of unarmed men, women, and children.

   • 1959, Rex Stout, “Assault on a Brownstone”, in Death Times Three, published 1985, page 186:

     As he entered he boomed: "Monstrous! Flagitious!"

Derived terms

• flagacious
• flagitiously
• flagitiousness

Translations

Guilty of terrible crimes

• Bulgarian: престъпен (bg) (prestǎpen)