insinuendo
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Blend of insinuation + innuendo
Noun
[edit]insinuendo (plural insinuendos or insinuendoes)
- insinuation containing innuendo
- 1888, Brander Matthews, Pen and Ink; Papers on Subjects of More Or Less Importance,, page 57:
- Truly a man may wish, “O that mine enemy would let me write his Preface! Could I not damn with faint praise and stab with sharp insinuendo?” – to use the labor-saving and much-needed word thoughtlessly invented by the sable legislator of South Carolina.
- 1918, Eugene Wood, “Missed It - The Big Idea”, in Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, Inc., page 30:
- It’s sort of an insinuendo, as Matt King says, that your mind could stand a good deal of improving and not hurt it any.
- 1964, Milton Rokeach, The three Christs of Ypsilanti: a psychological study, Knopf, page 131:
- "I don't have it," says Leon. "It was done away with because of the negative insinuendo."