insult

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English

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WOTD – 15 February 2020

Etymology

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The verb is derived fromMiddle Frenchinsulter(modernFrenchinsulter(“to insult”)) or itsetymonLatinīnsultāre,presentactiveinfinitiveofīnsultō(“to spring, leap or jump at or upon; to abuse, insult, revile, taunt”),thefrequentativeform ofīnsiliō(“to bound; to leap in or upon”),fromin-(prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’)+saliō(“to bound, jump, leap; to spring forth; to flow down”)(ultimately fromProto-Indo-European*sel-(“to spring”)).[1]

The noun is derived fromMiddle Frenchinsult(modernFrenchinsulte(“insult”)) or its etymonLate Latininsultus(“insult, reviling, scoffing”),fromīnsiliō(“to bound; to leap in or upon”);see above.[2]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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insult(third-person singular simple presentinsults,present participleinsulting,simple past and past participleinsulted)

  1. (transitive)To beinsensitive,insolent,orrudeto (somebody); toaffrontordemean(someone).[from 17th c.]
    Synonyms:disrespect,affront,disgrace,slander,discourtesy,offense
    Antonym:compliment
    - Marvel owns your gods!
    -Insultingis not arguing.
    • c.1598–1600(date written),William Shakespeare,“As You Like It”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene v],page199,column 2:
      And why I pray you? who might be your mother
      That youinſult,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.”, inClarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady:[…],volume III, London:[…]S[amuel]Richardson;[…],→OCLC,page242:
      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 thouinſulteſta woman of her character, family, and fortune.
    • 1851November 14,Herman Melville,“The Quadrant”, inMoby-Dick; or, The Whale,1st American edition, New York, N.Y.:Harper & Brothers;London:Richard Bentley,→OCLC,page553:
      Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to-morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thouinsultestthe sun!
    • 1912,Fyodor Dostoevsky,“The Second Visit to Smerdyakov”, inConstance Garnett,transl.,The Brothers Karamazov[…],New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company,published1922,part IV, book XI (Ivan),page667:
      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 beeninsulted,what a rascal has justinsultedhim, what a fine fellow he is on the other hand, and how he will pay that scoundrel out; [...]
  2. (transitive,alsofiguratively,obsolete)Toassail,assault,orattack;(specifically,military)tocarry outanassault,attack,oronsetwithoutpreparation.
    • c.1588–1593(date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene ii],page43,column 1, lines1518–1520:
      Giue me thy knife, I willinſulton him,
      Flattering my ſelfes, as if it were the Moore,
      Come hither purpoſely to poyſon me.
    • 1697,Virgil,“The Third Book of theGeorgics”,inJohn Dryden,transl.,The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…],London:[…]Jacob Tonson,[…],→OCLC,page107,lines367–370:
      Not with more madneſs, rolling from afar, / The ſpumy Waves proclaim the watry War. / And mounting upwards, with a mighty Roar, / March onwards, andinſultthe rocky ſhoar.
  3. (intransitive,obsolete)Tobehavein anobnoxiousandsuperiormanner(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.”, inA Qviet and Sober Reckoning vvith M.Thomas MortonSomewhat 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),page37:
      And doe you ſe how heinſultethouer 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”,inShake-speares Sonnets.[…]‎[1],London: ByG[eorge] EldforT[homas] T[horpe]and are to be sold byWilliam Aspley,→OCLC:
      Now with the drops of this moſt balmie time, / My loue lookes freſh, and death to me ſubſcribes, / Sinceſpightof him Ile liue in this poore time / While heinſultsoredull and ſpeachleſſe tribes.
    • 1624,Democritus Junior [pseudonym;Robert Burton], “Against Pouerty and Want, with Such Other Adversity”, inThe Anatomy of Melancholy:[…],2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire:[…]John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps,→OCLC,partition 2, section 3, member 3,page273:
      But be it ſo thou haſt loſt all, poore thou art deiected, in paine of body, griefe of mind, thine enimiesinſultouer thee, thou art as bad asIob,yet tel me (ſaithChryſoſtome), wasIobor the Diuell the greater conqueror, ſurelyJob,[...]
  4. (intransitive,obsolete,rare)Toleaportrampleupon.
    • c.1591–1592(date written),William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt,[…]”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene iii],page150,column 2, lines389–392:
      So looks the pent-vp Lyon o're the Wretch, / That trembles vnder his deuouring Pawes: / And ſo he walkes,inſultingo're his Prey, / And ſo he comes, to rend his Limbes aſunder.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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insult(countableanduncountable,pluralinsults)

  1. (uncountable)Actionorformofspeechdeliberatelyintendedto berude;(countable)a particularactorstatementhaving thiseffect.
    Synonyms:affront,(slang)diss,(obsolete)insultation,(Britain)offence,(US)offense,pejorative,(US, colloquial)slam,slight,slur;see alsoThesaurus:offense
    Antonym:compliment
    • a.1744,Richard Savage,“London and Bristol Delineated”, inSamuel Johnson,The Works of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland.[…],volume V, Dublin: Printed for J. Moore,[…],published1800,→OCLC,page259,column 2, lines41–46:
      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 thatinsultadds 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.”, inHelps and Hints How to Protect Life and Property.[…],London: Published for the proprietor, by T. Hurst,[…],→OCLC,page179:
      [...] I will, however, enjoin you /Never to submit tamely toinsultsfromanyone!for, althoughI 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,shouldthey return youinsultsfor such consistent conduct, it will bemanlyin you, after havinggiven them a chance,by your calm and dignified remonstrance, torepairthe injury, to resent the (by such an omission) enlarged offence, forthereuponno one can blame you if you firmlypersevere in your efforts to obtain reparation.
    • 1988July 15, John Cleese,A Fish Called Wanda,spoken by Archie Leach (John Cleese):
      To call you stupid would be aninsultto stupid people!
  2. (countable)Something thatcausesoffence(for example, by being of anunacceptablequality).
    Synonyms:disgrace,outrage
    The way the orchestra performed tonight was aninsultto my ears.
    • 1907October,Frances Hodgson Burnett,“Red Godwyn”, inThe Shuttle,New York, N.Y.:Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company,→OCLC,page348:
      Such marriages he had held wereinsultsto 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”, inThe 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 aninsultto your curiosity and intelligence.
  3. (countable,uncountable,medicine)Something causingdiseaseorinjuryto thebodyorbodilyprocesses;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,page65:
      The exact nature of the teratologicalinsultin 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,page415:
      [M]ost investigators agreed with the characterization of early brain plasticity as a transiently available, ancillary system that is triggered by neuralinsult,and that serves, most importantly, as a means of shielding the developing organism from the potentially debilitating effects of neuralinsult.
    • 2011,Terence Allen, Graham Cowling, “What Cells Can Do”, inThe Cell: A Very Short Introduction(Very Short Introductions), Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.:Oxford University Press,→ISBN,page96:
      Within the complex genome of most organisms there are alternative multiple pathways of proteins which can help the individual cell survive a variety ofinsults,for example radiation, toxic chemicals, heat, excessive or reduced oxygen.
  4. (countable,alsofiguratively,archaic)Anassaultorattack;(specifically,military,obsolete)an assault, attack, oronsetcarried outwithoutpreparation.
    • 1697,Virgil,“The Twelfth Book of theÆneis”,inJohn Dryden,transl.,The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…],London:[…]Jacob Tonson,[…],→OCLC,page590,lines415–420:
      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'dInſulttheLatineTroops embrace; / And meet their Ardour in the middle Space.
    • 1784,“From the Accession ofJamesto the English Crown, to theBattle of Kilrush,in the Reign ofCharles I”,inThe History of Ireland, from the Earliest Authentic Accounts.[…],Dublin: Printed for Luke White,[…],→OCLC,page226:
      The government was continually expoſed to theinſultsof a faction, and deſtitute of the neceſſary reſources.
  5. (countable,obsolete)An act ofleapingupon.
    • 1697,Virgil,“The Third Book of theGeorgics”,inJohn Dryden,transl.,The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…],London:[…]Jacob Tonson,[…],→OCLC,page99,lines99–102:
      The Bull'sInſultat 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

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Translations

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something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes

References

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  1. ^Compare“insult,v.”,inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1900;“insult,v.”,inLexico,Dictionary;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
  2. ^Compare“insult,n.”,inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1900;“insult,n.”,inLexico,Dictionary;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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insultm(pluralinsults)

  1. insult
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Further reading

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Romanian

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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insult

  1. first-personsingularpresentindicative/subjunctiveofinsulta
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