Used in the legal phrase 'in flagrante delicto,' meaning caught red-handed or in the act of committing a crime or wrongdoing.
From Latin 'flagrante' (ablative singular of 'flagrans,' meaning burning), from 'flagrare' (to burn). Used as part of the Latin legal phrase preserved in English meaning 'while the crime is still hot' or obviously occurring.
The phrase 'in flagrante delicto' literally means 'in blazing crime'—the Romans were imagining the wrongdoing as something so obviously burning that anyone could see it happening!
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