in flagrante delicto

In flagrante delicto (Latin: "in blazing offence") or sometimes simply in flagrante (Latin: "in blazing") is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (compare corpus delicti). The colloquial "caught in the act", "caught red-handed", or "caught rapid" are English equivalents.^[1][2]

The expression does not have a simple translation into English. The phrase combines the present active participle flagrāns (flaming or blazing) with the noun dēlictum (offence, misdeed or crime). In this term the Latin preposition in, not indicating motion, takes the ablative. The closest literal translation would be "in blazing offence", where "blazing" is a metaphor for vigorous, highly visible action.

The Latin term is sometimes used colloquially as a euphemism for someone being caught in the act of sexual intercourse.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English, Ed. Jennifer Speake, Berkley Books, (1999) Oxford University Press
2. ^ A Dictionary of Law by Jonathan Law and Elizabeth A. Martin, Oxford University Press 2009
3. ^ "in flagrante". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/in+flagrante+delicto#in-flagrante__2. "if somebody is found or caught in flagrante, they are discovered doing something that they should not be doing, especially having sex" 
4. ^ "in flagrante delicto". Merriam-Webster. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/in+flagrante+delicto. "2 : in the midst of sexual activity" 

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