Tuesday, April 12, 2005

And now, a peeve.

WOD-style:

Flaunt and flout are not interchangeable. They're not synonyms, they're nearly opposites.

To flaunt means that you "show off" certain aspects of yourself. This can be done in order to make people like your more or think that you are better than you were before you flaunted.

Hm. No flout in The Free Dictionary.

But they do have this in their Frequently Misused Words section:
One flouts a rule or law by flagrantly ignoring it. One flaunts something by showing it off.
Standard: If you've got it, flaunt it.
Standard: He continually flouted the speed limit.
Non-standard: If you've got it, flout it.
Non-standard: He continually flaunted the speed limit.

So there!