Make Your Point: ARRANT

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pronounce ARRANT:

AIR unt

connect this word to others:

The word arrant branched off from the word errant, which means "incorrect, wrong, imperfect—or more literally, wandering or traveling." We'll see why in a second.

Arrant and errant belong to a family of words from the Latin errare, meaning "to wander off, to go astray, to be incorrect," which includes words like err, error, erratic, and these:

1. Something erron___s has errors or mistakes: it's not correct, not accurate, or not truthful.

2. An __erration is something strange or unusual that seems to wander away from the pattern or the expectation.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Arrant" traces back to a Latin word meaning "traveling or wandering."

In English, it started out meaning "wandering." But, probably because we talked so often about "arrant thieves," it took on a new meaning, the only one that we use today.

"Arrant" is now a harsh, negative word meaning "downright," "utter," or "total."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "That's a load of arrant nonsense."

Other forms:

The adverb is "arrantly," as in "They were arrantly mistreated" and "The room was arrantly filthy."

how to use it:

Pick the formal, semi-common word "arrant" to complain about how openly, obviously, and completely bad something is.

An arrant idiot is a total idiot, arrant nonsense is complete nonsense, and arrant desperation is obvious desperation. You might complain about things being arrant pedantry, hypocrisy, racism, mistreatment, favoritism and so on.

Here's the huckster Pirelli selling his Miracle Elixir to magically grow out your hair, which is "nothing but an arrant fraud."

(Source)

examples:

"We are king's officers; he is an arrant rogue and villain."
— Percy F. Westerman, A Lad of Grit: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times, 1909

"If anything was discovered on 12 October 1492, it was Columbus himself. National treasure or arrant hooligan, we can all agree that he was, on that fateful day at least, lost."
— Jenny Judge, The Guardian, 10 October 2017

has this page helped you understand "arrant"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "arrant" without saying "out-and-out" or "flagrant."

try it out:

There's this persistent myth that, in English, you aren't supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. It's one of those cranky old "rules" that even famous writers have ignored for hundreds of years. So if anyone tries to stop you from ending a sentence with a preposition, perhaps you'd like to respond with this classic line: "That is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

What else is arrant pedantry? Or arrant nonsense? Or arrant foolishness? Or an arrant scam?

Fill in the blanks: "(Do something pointless or unreasonable?) What arrant (pedantry, nonsense, or foolishness). Or: What an errant scam."

Example 1: "You deducted an entire letter grade from his paper because he ended a sentence with a preposition? What arrant pedantry."

Example 2: "A $7 'convenience fee' when this is literally the only way you accept payment? What an arrant scam."

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

This month, our game is "Sarah In Dip a Day!"

I'll give you some song lyrics that contain a sophisticated word or phrase—but I'll swap it out for what you might hear if you didn't know that word or phrase.

Your job is to find the spot where the lyrics quit making sense, then reinterpret those words as the artist actually wrote them.

Here's an example:

"I'm on a one-way street,
My fall from grace complete,
But I feel that there's a hazard hanging over me.
But I take away the feeling that I can't see,
And now you say to me
Sarah in dip a day."
—Amaranthe

Here, the meaning breaks down at "Sarah in dip a day," which should read "Serendipity."

Try this one today:

"In my room there's a king size space
Bigger than it used to be.
If you want you can rent that place.
Call me an amenity, oh oh.
Even if it's in my dreams, oh.
Ooh, you're taking up a fraction of my mind.
Ooh, every time I watch usurp in time."
—Selena Gomez

If you need some clues, highlight the hidden white text below.
1. The part that needs to be changed is..."usurp in time"
2. The term that's being sung means..."reminding you of a snake, usually because it moves like a snake or because it curves from side to side."
To see the answer, scroll all the way down!

review this word:

1. Opposites of ARRANT include

A. FRILLY and CHICHI (trendy and fancy in a showy way).
B. UBER- and PLUSQUAM- (ultra-, mega-, extra-, beyond-, or super-duper-).
C. QUASI (almost, in-effect, virtually, or sort-of) and HEMI-DEMI-SEMI (kinda-sorta-not-really).

2. You're most likely to apply the adjective "arrant" to a phrase like

A. "waste of time."
B. "natural beauty."
C. "knight in armor."

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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