Flagitious is a word you should most definitely add to your adjectival arsenal. What do you think it means?

A. Preoccupied with flags.
B. Flagrantly ambitious.
C. Shamefully wicked, scandalous.
D. Deceptive or manipulative.
E. Blind with rage.

Would you be surprised to learn that flagitious means … shamefully wicked, scandalous? It does. You can put the word to work easily these days, since we are surrounded by flagitious activites -

• Flagitious celebrities, such as O.J. Simpson.
• Flatigious business enterprises, such as Enron.
• Flagitous ideologies, such as those that promote terrorism.

Flagitious can apply to people, things, ideas, or an historical era. The word suggests brutality, atrocity, infamy, wickedness. Sometimes I fear we have become so inundated with flagitiousness that we are numb to it. What do you think?