In Flagrante Delicto

[confusedpink]

Does anyone know what this means? It is a line in a play and the entire cast is unsure what it means. Any ideas? I hope that I have spelt it right!

[Kingaroo]

We'll have to wait for Octavius to give us the Latin, but it means "caught in the act of having sex."

[Peter Pedant]

caught in the act

if you walk into a room where a couple are er kissing - this is family website - you could say,

My God - Sadie - or whoever your wife is - I've caught you in flagrante delicto !

and she would say.....

 

oh I've remembered it is latin

in the flagrant guilty act

[confusedpink]

Ah well, wasn't expecting that but thanks, that helps!

[Clanad]

The literal lating translation would be " while the crime is blazing"... [flagrante, ablative of flagrāns, blazing + dēlictō, ablative of dēlictum, offense.]

[Narolines]

The phrase has certainly come to be used quite commonly with a sexual connotation, but it simply means, as Peter Pedant says, "caught in the act" - any act of a dubious, suspicious or criminal nature.