insinuate

English

WOTD – 30 November 2007

Etymology

From Latin īnsinuō (“to push in, creep in, steal in”), from in (“in”) + sinus (“a winding, bend, bay, fold, bosom”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪnjueɪt/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (AU)

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Verb

insinuate (third-person singular simple present insinuates, present participle insinuating, simple past and past participle insinuated)

1. To hint; to suggest tacitly (usually something bad) while avoiding a direct statement.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:allude

   She insinuated that her friends had betrayed her.

   • 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, →OCLC, Act II, scene iii:

     And wilt thou inſinuate what I am? and praiſe me? And ſay I am a Noble Fellow?

   • 1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter V, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC:

     And, moreover, you need not for a moment to insinuate that the virtues have taken refuge in cottages and wholly abandoned slated houses.

   • 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 4, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC:

     ‘You are quite wrong, my love, in your guess at my meaning. What I insinuated was, that my Georgiana’s little heart was growing conscious of a vacancy.’

2. (rare) To creep, wind, or flow into; to enter gently, slowly, or imperceptibly, as into crevices.
   • 1728-1729, John Woodward, An Attempt towards a Natural History of the Fossils of England

     Water will insinuate itself into Flints through certain imperceptible Cracks

3. (figurative, by extension) To ingratiate; to obtain access to or introduce something by subtle, cunning or artful means.
   • 1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], chapter 3, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC:

     All the art of rhetoric, besides order and clearness, are for nothing else but to insinuate wrong ideas, move the passions, and thereby mislead the judgment.

   • 1693, John Dryden, “[The Dedication]”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     Horace laughs to shame all follies and insinuates virtue, rather by familiar examples than by the severity of precepts.

   • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “(please specify |book=I to XVI)”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, →OCLC:

     He […] insinuated himself into the very good grace of the Duke of Buckingham.

   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 306:

     […] he insinuated himself into the confidence of one already so forlorn—[…]

   • 1995, Terry Pratchett, Maskerade, page 242:

     Nanny didn't so much enter places as insinuate herself; she had unconsciously taken a natural talent for liking people and developed it into an occult science.

Related terms

• insinuation
• insinuator
• sinuous

Translations

hint at (something)

• Arabic: لَمَّحَ (lammaḥa), أَلْمَحَ (ʔalmaḥa), أَشَارَ (ʔašāra)
• Bulgarian: намеквам (bg) (namekvam)
• Catalan: insinuar (ca)
• Czech: naznačit (cs) pf, naznačovat (cs) impf
• Dutch: insinueren (nl)
• Finnish: vihjata (fi)
• French: insinuer (fr)
• German: andeuten (de), unterstellen (de), insinuieren (de)
• Greek: υπονοώ (el) (yponoó), υπαινίσσομαι (el) (ypainíssomai)
• Polish: insynuować (pl)
• Portuguese: insinuar (pt)
• Russian: намека́ть (ru) (namekátʹ)
• Spanish: insinuar (es)
• Swedish: insinuera (sv)
• Tagalog: iparinig, magparinig, paringgan

creep or wind into, to enter gently

• Arabic: تسحّب, تسلل
• Bulgarian: прокрадвам се (prokradvam se)
• Finnish: tihkua (fi), hivuttautua (fi)
• Italian: insinuare (it)

ingratiate oneself

• Arabic: اِنْدَسّ (indass)
• Czech: vetřít se pf, vlichotit se pf, protlačit se pf
• Finnish: mielistellä (fi)
• French: insinuer (fr)
• German: sich einschmeicheln, sich einschleichen
• Polish: przypochlebiać się
• Russian: заи́скивать пе́ред (zaískivatʹ péred), сниска́ть (чью-нибу́дь) ми́лость (sniskátʹ (čʹju-nibúdʹ) mílostʹ)

Further reading

• “insinuate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “insinuate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• annuities

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

insinuate

1. inflection of insinuare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

insinuate f pl

1. feminine plural of insinuato

Latin

Verb

īnsinuāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of īnsinuō

Spanish

Verb

insinuate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of insinuar combined with te