bla·tant / ˈblātnt/ • adj. (of bad behavior) done openly and unashamedly: blatant lies. ∎  completely lacking in subtlety; very obvious: forcing herself to resist his blatant charm.DERIVATIVES: bla·tan·cy / ˈblātnsē/ n.ORIGIN: late 16th cent.: perhaps an alteration of Scots blatand ‘bleating.’ It was first used by Spenser as an epithet for a thousand-tongued monster produced by Cerberus and Chimera, a symbol of calumny, which he called the blatant beast. It was subsequently used to mean ‘clamorous, offensive to the ear,’ first of people (mid 17th cent.), later of things (late 18th cent.); the sense ‘obtrusive to the eye, unashamedly conspicuous’ arose in the late 19th cent.

blatant first used by Spenser in the blat(t)ant beast (F.Q. v. xii. 37, etc.) to describe the thousand-tongued monster produced by Cerberus and Chimæra and symbolizing calumny 1596; offensively noisy or clamorous XVII. perh. alt., after adjs. in -ANT, of Sc. blatand, prp. of blate BLEAT.