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Arrant vs Effrontery - What's the difference?

arrant | effrontery |

As an adjective arrant

is utter; complete.

As a noun effrontery is

insolent and shameless audacity.

arrant

English

Alternative forms

* (l) (obsolete)

Adjective

(er)
  • Utter; complete.
    • arrant nonsense!'' Thomas Bennet, A Brief History of the Joint Use of Recompos'd Set Forms of Prayer...to wich is annexed a Discourse of the Gost of Prayer], p. 187
  • * circa 1600 , (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet) , scene 1:
    • We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us.

    Usage notes

    Particularly used in the phrase “arrant' knaves”, quoting ''Hamlet,'' and “' arrant nonsense”.Safire, 2006, considers “arrant nonsense” to be “wedded words”, a form of a fixed phrase. Some dictionaries consider arrant simply an alternative form of errant, but in usage they have long since split. The word has long been considered archaic, may be confused with errant, and is used primarily in , on which basis some recommend against using it.

    References

    * “ arrant/errant”, Common Errors in English Usage, Paul Brians * On Language: Arrant Nonsense, (William Safire), January 22, 2006, (New York Times) * Merriam–Webster’s dictionary of English usage, 1995, “errant, arrant”, pp. 406–407

    effrontery

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) Insolent and shameless audacity.
    • We even had the effrontery to suggest that he should leave the country.
  • (countable) An act of insolent and shameless audacity.
    • Any refusal to salute the president shall be counted as an effrontery .

    Quotations

    * (English Citations of "effrontery")

    References

    * 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198610572 * 1996, T.F. Hoad, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Etymology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0192830988 *