Word Study
flippant
CIDE DICTIONARY
flippant, a. [Prov. E. flip to move nimbly; cf. W. llipa soft, limber, pliant, or Icel. fleipa to babble, prattle. Cf. Flip, Fillip, Flap, Flipper.].
- Of smooth, fluent, and rapid speech; speaking with ease and rapidity; having a voluble tongue; talkative. [1913 Webster]"It becometh good men, in such cases, to be flippant and free in their speech." [1913 Webster]
- Speaking fluently and confidently, without knowledge or consideration; empty; trifling; inconsiderate; pert; petulant. Thomson. [1913 Webster]"To put flippant scorn to the blush." [1913 Webster]"A sort of flippant, vain discourse." [1913 Webster]
flippant, n.
A flippant person. Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
flippant, adj. lacking in seriousness; treating serious things lightly; disrespectful.
Derivative
flippancy n. flippantly adv.
Etymology
FLIP(1) + -ANT
THESAURUS
flippant
airy, bantering, belittling, biggety, bluff, booing, brash, brazen, careless, casual, catcalling, chaffing, cheeky, chutzpadik, cocky, contemptuous, crusty, cursory, degage, derisive, derisory, discourteous, dismissive, disregardant, disregardful, disrespectful, easygoing, facetious, facy, fleering, flip, fooling, forgetful, free and easy, fresh, frivolous, gally, gratuitous, grinning, heedless, hissing, hooting, impertinent, impudent, inconsiderate, indifferent, insolent, insouciant, irreverent, jeering, jocular, joshing, kidding, lazy, leering, light-hearted, malapert, mocking, nervy, oblivious, offhand, offhanded, panning, perfunctory, pert, quizzical, ragging, railing, rallying, razzing, reckless, regardless, respectless, ridiculing, roasting, rude, sassy, saucy, scoffing, scornful, shallow, smart, smart-alecky, smart-ass, smirking, sneering, snickering, sniggering, snorting, supercilious, superficial, tactless, taunting, teasing, thoughtless, twitting, uncalled-for, undiplomatic, unheedful, unheeding, unmindful, unprepared, unready, unserious, unsolicitous, untactful, unthinking, wise-assROGET THESAURUS
flippant
Loquacity
N loquacity, loquaciousness, talkativeness, garrulity, multiloquence, much speaking, jaw, gabble, jabber, chatter, prate, prattle, cackle, clack, twaddle, twattle, rattle, caquet, caquetterie, blabber, bavardage, bibble-babble, gibble-gabble, small talk, fluency, flippancy, volubility, flowing, tongue, flow of words, flux de bouche, flux de mots, copia verborum, cacoethes loquendi, furor loquendi, verbosity, gift of the gab, talker, chatterer, chatterbox, babbler, rattle, ranter, sermonizer, proser, driveler, blatherskite, gossip, magpie, jay, parrot, poll, Babel, moulin a paroles, loquacious, talkative, garrulous, linguacious, multiloquous, largiloquent, chattering, chatty, declamatory, open-mouthed, fluent, voluble, glib, flippant, long tongued, long winded, trippingly on the tongue, glibly, off the reel, the tongue running fast, the tongue running loose, the tongue running on wheels, all talk and no cider, foul whisperings are abroad, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue!.Insolence
N insolence, haughtiness, arrogance, airs, overbearance, domineering, tyranny, impertinence, sauciness, flippancy, dicacity, petulance, procacity, bluster, swagger, swaggering, bounce, terrorism, assumption, presumption, beggar on horseback, usurpation, impudence, assurance, audacity, hardihood, front, face, brass, shamelessness, effrontery, hardened front, face of brass, assumption of infallibility, saucebox, insolent, haughty, arrogant, imperious, magisterial, dictatorial, arbitrary, high-handed, high and mighty, contumelious, supercilious, overbearing, intolerant, domineering, overweening, high-flown, flippant, pert, fresh, cavalier, saucy, forward, impertinent, malapert, precocious, assuming, would-be, bumptious, bluff, brazen, shameless, aweless, unblushlng, unabashed, brazen, boldfaced-, barefaced-, brazen-faced, dead to shame, lost to shame, impudent, audacious, presumptuous, free and easy, devil-may-care, rollicking, jaunty, janty, roistering, blustering, hectoring, swaggering, vaporing, thrasonic, fire eating, full of sound and fury, with a high hand, ex cathedra, one's bark being worse than his bite, beggars mounted run their horse to death, quid times? Caesarem vehis, wagahai wa (expressing superiority).For further exploring for "flippant" in Webster Dictionary Online