Question: I'm confused about the words "flout" and "flaunt." While I'm sure they have two distinct meanings, I'm also certain I see and hear educated people use "flaunt" when they mean "flout." What exactly is happening here?
Answer: You are not alone in noting, and questioning, the use of the word "flaunt" in place of "flout" to mean "treat with contemptuous disregard" (as in "flaunt the rules"). The conclusion often reached by discerning listeners and readers is that the two words have been confused and a glaring error has been made. This attitude is supported by usage commentators, who have been almost unanimous in condemning this use.
The undisputed meaning of "flaunt" is "to display ostentatiously" (as in "flaunting their wealth"). This sense dates back to the 16th century. Our first example of "flaunt" meaning "flout," on the other hand, dates only from 1918. The earliest criticism we've seen is from a 1932 letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, in which the use of "flaunt" for "flout" was described as "a curious new error, one more indication that we Americans are growing less and less language-minded." (The letter writer also wondered if this lapse was a result of "the machine age.")
"Flaunt and "flout" have similar qualities, even when used distinctively. They resemble each other not only in spelling and pronunciation, but also in being applied to open, unabashed, and usually disapproved behavior, as in, "The burglar flaunted his success at flouting the law." Given the close resemblance of the two words and their tendency to appear in similar contexts, confusion about their meanings may have been almost inevitable.
However the use of "flaunt" to mean "flout" originated, it has been common in American English for many decades. It seems clear that many of those who now use "flaunt" this way do so not out of ignorance or carelessness, but because they have seen and heard it so often that its use seems perfectly natural. Our dictionaries duly record this sense of "flaunt," but we also make note of the criticism it attracts. Our advice is to avoid the criticism by avoiding the sense.
Question: Occasionally I use the word "comeuppance," but it strikes me as a very odd word. Is it a colloquialism?
Answer: "Comeuppance," meaning "a deserved rebuke or penalty," was at one time considered colloquial. It was first recorded in Harper's Magazine in 1859, when it appeared enclosed in quotation marks as "come-up-ance," formed from "come up" and the noun suffix "ance." One explanation of its origin traces it to a now-forgotten use of the phrase "come up with" to mean "to get the better of" or "to get even with." These were figurative senses taken directly from the literal meaning of "come up with" - "to reach or come abreast of." This expression was usually used passively; that is, a person who was gotten the better of was (or "got") "come up with."
The theory is that "got come up with" may occasionally have become "got his (or her) come-up-with," transforming the phrase "come up with" into a noun meaning "just deserts," thus paving the way for the noun "comeupance." Another version of the noun, "come-uppings," first appeared in print in 1880, referring specifically to a flogging, so perhaps the term had been used colloquially in one form or another to refer to specific as well as general forms of punishment even before the appearance in Harper's. In some early 20th century reference works, the word in its various forms is labeled a New England colloquialism. By the mid-1900s, however, "comeuppance" had assumed its present form and had been elevated to standard English.