When it comes to flagrant boldness, temerity,audacity,hardihood, and effrontery have the cheek to get your meaning across. Of those synonyms, temerity (from the Latin temere, meaning "blindly" or "recklessly") suggests boldness arising from contempt of danger, while audacity implies a disregard of the restraints commonly imposed by convention or prudence. Hardihood implies firmness in daring and defiance, and effrontery suggests a shameless disregard of propriety and courtesy. If you're looking for a more informal term for a brash attitude, you might consider nerve,cheek,gall, or chutzpah.
He defeated giant corporations—the auto industry, big pharma—back when no one else was even trying to; he had the temerity to believe that fighting for safety and quality and transparency was a quintessentially American thing to do. Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, 16 Feb. 2007A wisp of a kid (six feet, 160 pounds) with the temerity to buzz pitches up and in to Barry Bonds, Hudson has a bit of Pedro in him.ESPN, 24 July 2000… all the while you're balancing your two prevailing interests: recording her words to later use against her—because, she, too, had the temerity to be relatively famous and attractive (with a master's from Penn)—while also, more pressingly, trying to get invited back to her apartment. Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, 2000 He was punished for his temerity. she had the temerity to ask me if she could borrow some money even though she never repaid the last loan
Recent Examples on the WebWhen then-First Lady Michelle Obama slung her arm around her hostess during a visit to Buckingham Palace in 2009, royal watchers gasped at the temerity and the breach of protocol.Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2022 Is there something to be said against Colescott’s untrammelled temerity? Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 18 July 2022 As Jackson sauntered during the ensuing break in play, his chin up defiantly and jaw clenched, James did a double-take at the apparent temerity, his next-play focus transforming into disapproval.Los Angeles Times, 4 Mar. 2022 Now Johnson has the temerity to stand on the global stage and pretend to support Ukraine and abhor Russian interference. Balaji Ravichandran, Washington Post, 15 July 2022 Being the Ricardos gets its title — and its temerity — from the odious documentary Capturing the Friedmans because Sorkin thinks in terms of behind-the-scenes exposé, lecturing the audience and reprimanding the culture. Armond White, National Review, 18 Feb. 2022 And yet Mexico has the temerity to decry American border policy.Los Angeles Times, 25 Mar. 2022 But Justice Samuel Alito had the temerity to point out the obvious. The Editorial Board, WSJ, 8 Mar. 2022 Herb Caen had the temerity to say first what only months before might have been considered delusional. Michael Lerseth, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Jan. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English temeryte, borrowed from Latin temeritāt- temeritās, from temere "blindly, recklessly, haphazardly" + -itāt- -itās-ity; temere going back to adverbialized locative singular of a noun *temes- "darkness," going back to Indo-European *temH-es-, whence also Sanskrit tamas- "darkness, gloom," Avestan tǝmah-, and, from the base *temH-, Lithuanian témsta, témti "to become dark," tamsà "darkness," tim͂sras "dark red (of a horse), sorrel," Old Church Slavic tĭma "darkness," tĭmĭnŭ "dark, gloomy," and from a *-ro- adjectival derivative Sanskrit tamra- "darkening, oppressive," Germanic *þemra- "darkness," whence Old High German demar "dusk, twilight"