- In flagrante delicto
"In flagrante delicto" (
Latin : "in the blazing [progressing] offence [misdeed] ") or sometimes simply "in flagrante" (Latin : "while blazing [during] ") is a legal term used to indicate that a criminal has been caught in the act of committing an offence (comparecorpus delicti ). Thecolloquial "caught " or "caught in the act" are English equivalents.French Economist
Frederic Bastiat , in his "Parable of the Broken Window " (a satire regarding those who would say that economic benefits accrue to the community because of the new transactions that are "created" upon the breaking of a window), said that "this formula of condolence contains a whole theory that it is a good idea for us to expose, flagrante delicto, in this very simple case...."The Latin term is sometimes used colloquially as a
euphemism for a couple being caught in the act ofsexual intercourse , as it is used in the film "Clue"; in modern usage the intercourse need not be adulterous or illicitFact|date=March 2008.
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