insult

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English[edit]

WOTD – 15 February 2020

Etymology[edit]

The verb is derived from Middle French insulter (modern French insulter (“to insult”)) or its etymon Latin īnsultāre, present active infinitive of īnsultō (“to spring, leap or jump at or upon; to abuse, insult, revile, taunt”), the frequentative form of īnsiliō (“to bound; to leap in or upon”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + saliō (“to bound, jump, leap; to spring forth; to flow down”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“to spring”)).[1]

The noun is derived from Middle French insult (modern French insulte (“insult”)) or its etymon Late Latin insultus (“insult, reviling, scoffing”), from īnsiliō (“to bound; to leap in or upon”); see above.[2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

insult (third-person singular simple present insults, present participle insulting, simple past and past participle insulted)

  1. (transitive) To be insensitive, insolent, or rude to (somebody); to affront or demean (someone). [from 17th c.]
    Synonyms: disrespect, affront, disgrace, slander, discourtesy, offense
    Antonym: compliment
    - Marvel owns your gods!
    - Insulting is not arguing.
    • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 199, column 2:
      And why I pray you? who might be your mother
      That you inſult, exult, and all at once
      Ouer the wretched?
    • 1609, Geo[rge] Chapman, Euthymiæ Raptus; or The Teares of Peace: […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Rich[ard] Bonian, and H. Walley: […], →OCLC:
      The Foe hayles on thy head; and in thy Face / Inſults, and trenches; leaues thee, no worlds grace; / The walles, in which thou art beſieged, ſhake.
    • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XLIX. Mr. Belford, to Robert Lovelace, Esq.”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume III, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC, page 242:
      Nor would ſuch a man as thou art be deterr'd, were I to remind thee of the vengeance which thou mayeſt one day expect, if thou inſulteſt a woman of her character, family, and fortune.
    • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Quadrant”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 553:
      Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thou insultest the sun!
    • 1912, Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Second Visit to Smerdyakov”, in Constance Garnett, transl., The Brothers Karamazov […], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1922, part IV, book XI (Ivan), page 667:
      It was a wordy, disconnected, frantic letter, a drunken letter in fact. It was like the talk of a drunken man, who, on his return home, begins with extraordinary heat telling his wife or one of his household how he has just been insulted, what a rascal has just insulted him, what a fine fellow he is on the other hand, and how he will pay that scoundrel out; [...]
  2. (transitive, also figuratively, obsolete) To assail, assault, or attack; (specifically, military) to carry out an assault, attack, or onset without preparation.
    • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 43, column 1, lines 1518–1520:
      Giue me thy knife, I will inſult on him,
      Flattering my ſelfes, as if it were the Moore,
      Come hither purpoſely to poyſon me.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 107, lines 367–370:
      Not with more madneſs, rolling from afar, / The ſpumy Waves proclaim the watry War. / And mounting upwards, with a mighty Roar, / March onwards, and inſult the rocky ſhoar.
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (against or over someone). [16th–19th c.]
    • 1609, “P. R.” [i.e., Robert Persons], “The First Chapter Ansvvering to the First of M. Thomas Mortons Three Vaine Inquiryes, Concerning the Witt, Memorie, Learning, Charitie, Modestie, and Truth of His Aduersarie, P. R.”, in A Qviet and Sober Reckoning vvith M. Thomas Morton Somewhat Set in Choler by His Aduersary P. R. […], [Saint-Omer, France]: [s.n.], →OCLC, §IIII (Another Vaine Contention Brought by M. Morton about Skill in Logike), page 37:
      And doe you ſe how he inſulteth ouer me, as though hee had gotten a great aduantage, and how hee taketh heere his reuenge vpon me, for the ſhipwracke hee ſuffered before, in the matter of his ſyllogyſme?
    • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 107”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […]‎[1], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
      Now with the drops of this moſt balmie time, / My loue lookes freſh, and death to me ſubſcribes, / Since ſpight of him Ile liue in this poore time / While he inſults ore dull and ſpeachleſſe tribes.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Against Pouerty and Want, with Such Other Adversity”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 3, member 3, page 273:
      But be it ſo thou haſt loſt all, poore thou art deiected, in paine of body, griefe of mind, thine enimies inſult ouer thee, thou art as bad as Iob, yet tel me (ſaith Chryſoſtome), was Iob or the Diuell the greater conqueror, ſurely Job, [...]
  4. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To leap or trample upon.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

insult (countable and uncountable, plural insults)

  1. (uncountable) Action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude; (countable) a particular act or statement having this effect.
    Synonyms: affront, (slang) diss, (obsolete) insultation, (Britain) offence, (US) offense, pejorative, (US, colloquial) slam, slight, slur; see also Thesaurus:offense
    Antonym: compliment
    • a. 1744, Richard Savage, “London and Bristol Delineated”, in Samuel Johnson, The Works of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland. […], volume V, Dublin: Printed for J. Moore, […], published 1800, →OCLC, page 259, column 2, lines 41–46:
      Preſent we meet thy ſneaking treacherous ſmiles;
      The harmleſs abſent ſtill thy ſneer reviles;
      Such as in thee all parts ſuperior find,
      The ſneer that marks the fool and knave combin'd;
      When melting pity would afford relief
      The ruthleſs ſneer that insult adds to grief.
    • 1835, Lt. Col. Baron de Berenger [i.e., Charles Random, Baron de Bérenger Beaufain], “Letter XII. On Character Generally, and on Manliness Especially.”, in Helps and Hints How to Protect Life and Property. […], London: Published for the proprietor, by T. Hurst, […], →OCLC, page 179:
      [...] I will, however, enjoin you / Never to submit tamely to insults from any one! for, although I strongly urge you to show every possible respect and deference to all who are your superiors, as indeed due to them, I wish you to remember that, should they return you insults for such consistent conduct, it will be manly in you, after having given them a chance, by your calm and dignified remonstrance, to repair the injury, to resent the (by such an omission) enlarged offence, for thereupon no one can blame you if you firmly persevere in your efforts to obtain reparation.
    • 1988 July 15, John Cleese, A Fish Called Wanda, spoken by Archie Leach (John Cleese):
      To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
  2. (countable) Something that causes offence (for example, by being of an unacceptable quality).
    Synonyms: disgrace, outrage
    The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
    • 1907 October, Frances Hodgson Burnett, “Red Godwyn”, in The Shuttle, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company, →OCLC, page 348:
      Such marriages he had held were insults to the manhood of any man and the womanhood of any woman. In such unions neither party could respect himself or his companion.
    • 2011, Thomas Grissom, “A Note to the Reader”, in The Physicist’s World: The Story of Motion and the Limits to Knowledge, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page ix:
      The story we will share in the pages of this book, you as the reader and I as the author, contains a modicum of mathematics. I have used it sparingly, and judiciously, but to eliminate it altogether would have been dishonest, a form of intellectual deception and condescension, and an insult to your curiosity and intelligence.
  3. (countable, uncountable, medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes; the injury so caused.
    • 1996, Ulf J. Eriksson, “Embryo Development in Diabetic Pregnancy”, in Anne Dornhorst, David R. Hadden, editors, Diabetes and Pregnancy: An International Approach to Diagnosis and Management, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 65:
      The exact nature of the teratological insult in diabetic pregnancy, and the cell biological details of the induced disturbances, are not known.
    • 2006, Joan Stiles, Pamela Moses, Brianna M. Paul, “The Longitudinal Study of Spatial Cognitive Development in Children with Pre- or Perinatal Focal Brain Injury: […]”, in Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, editors, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex: Plasticity following Central and Peripheral Leisons, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 415:
      [M]ost investigators agreed with the characterization of early brain plasticity as a transiently available, ancillary system that is triggered by neural insult, and that serves, most importantly, as a means of shielding the developing organism from the potentially debilitating effects of neural insult.
    • 2011, Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, “What Cells Can Do”, in The Cell: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions), Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 96:
      Within the complex genome of most organisms there are alternative multiple pathways of proteins which can help the individual cell survive a variety of insults, for example radiation, toxic chemicals, heat, excessive or reduced oxygen.
  4. (countable, also figuratively, archaic) An assault or attack; (specifically, military, obsolete) an assault, attack, or onset carried out without preparation.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Twelfth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 590, lines 415–420:
      Then fir'd with pious Rage, the gen'rous Train / Run madly forward, to revenge the ſlain. / And ſome with eager haſte their Jav'lins throw; / And ſome, with Sword in hand, aſſault the Foe. / The wiſh'd Inſult the Latine Troops embrace; / And meet their Ardour in the middle Space.
    • 1784, “From the Accession of James to the English Crown, to the Battle of Kilrush, in the Reign of Charles I”, in The History of Ireland, from the Earliest Authentic Accounts. […], Dublin: Printed for Luke White, […], →OCLC, page 226:
      The government was continually expoſed to the inſults of a faction, and deſtitute of the neceſſary reſources.
  5. (countable, obsolete) An act of leaping upon.
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 99, lines 99–102:
      The Bull's Inſult at Four ſhe [the mother cow] may ſuſtain; / But, after Ten, from Nuptial Rites refrain. / Six Seaſons uſe; but then releaſe the Cow, / Unfit for Love, and for the lab'ring Plough.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes

References[edit]

  1. ^ Compare “insult, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900; “insult, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ Compare “insult, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900; “insult, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Catalan[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

insult m (plural insults)

  1. insult

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Romanian[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

insult

  1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of insulta
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