The "flaunt"/"vaunt" distinction.

As footnoted in the previous post, I just use the word "vaunt" for the first time in the 50,000+-post history of this blog. I almost wrote "flaunt," but I stopped and wondered, why isn't it "vaunt"? I've used the word "flaunt" many times — including making fun of mixing it up with "flout" — but maybe "flaunt" has, in my mind, eclipsed the similar word "vaunt."

Don't get too cocky about knowing the "flaunt"/"flout" distinction if you are not even keeping track of the "flaunt"/"vaunt" distinction.

Here's "Flaunt, Flout, Vaunt" (in the AMA Style Insider):

[T]he confusion between flaunt and vaunt stems not only from their marked similarity in sound but also from their somewhat similar meanings (to display oneself boastfully or ostentatiously, often so as to show off one’s attractiveness or possessions, compared with using language boastfully, often to boast of an accomplishment). Indeed, given the similarities in sound and meaning that exist between these two words, it is perhaps surprising that they are not confused more often. On the whole, however, language users usually seem to recognize the difference between these words, and even descriptive usage does not yet support the use of vaunt in place of flaunt or vice versa.

In short, flaunt, flout, and vaunt are sometimes used as malapropisms for one another, particularly in spoken language. However, these terms have distinct meanings and, despite their similarity in sound as well as the increasing support in some circles for sometimes using flaunt in place of flout, currently it is preferable to maintain the distinctions between these terms and to use them as they have predominantly been used over time. Or, to take some liberties with the quasi-transitive:

If you’ve got it, flaunt it;

If you did it, vaunt it;

If they forbid it, flout it.—Phil Sefton, ELS

A better poem:

When I consider everything that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment,
That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;
When I perceive that men as plants increase,
Cheered and check'd even by the selfsame sky,
Vaunt in their youthful sap, at height decrease,
And wear their brave state out of memory;
Then the conceit of this inconstant stay
Sets you most rich in youth before my sight,
Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay
To change your day of youth to sullied night;
And all in war with Time for love of you,
As he takes from you, I engraft you new.

ADDED: I just spent a little time trying to understand that "better poem," which is Shakespeare's Sonnet 15, and I quickly ended up doing a Google search which brought me to "You’re Missing Shakespeare’s Best, Most Sophisticated Boner Jokes" by Nathalie Lagerfeld. The title is so English teacher. Unfortunately, it says nothing about Sonnet 15, and I'm left with stupid suspicions engrafted in me by English teachers of yore. Cliff's Notes says Sonnet 15 just means the youth — the entire man (not merely one part) — is youthful, and knowing he'll get old makes him seem even better in his currently youthful state.