insult

Etymology

From Middle French insult (noun) and insulter (verb), from Latin insultāre (“to jump at, insult”), ultimately from salīre (“to jump”).

Pronunciation

• (verb) enPR: ĭnsŭlt', IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsʌlt/
• (noun) enPR: ĭn'sŭlt, IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.sʌlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlt

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To be rude, insensitive or insolent to (somebody); to demean or affront (someone). [from 17th c.]
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against). [16th-19th c.]
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, (please specify |partition=1, 2, or 3):
     , II.3.3:

     thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job […].

3. (obsolete) To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.

   Template:Who might be your mother, That you insult, exult, and all at once, Over the wretched?

  [Shakespeare, William. Complete Works. As You Like It. III, v. Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, eds. Hampshire: Macmillan, 2007. p. 508]

J. Wiwat (talk) 03:27, 14 June 2018 (UTC)

Noun

insult (plural insults)

1. An action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.
   • Savage

     the ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief

   • 1987, Jamie Lee Curtis, A Fish Called Wanda:

     To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!

2. Anything that causes offence/offense, e.g. by being of an unacceptable quality.

   The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.

3. (medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes.
   • 2006, Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex (page 415)

     […] most investigators agreed with the characterization of early brain plasticity as a transiently available, ancillary system that is triggered by neural insult […]

   • 2011, Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2011, p. 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. (obsolete) The act of leaping on; onset; attack.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Related terms

• insolence
• insultation

Anagrams

• sunlit, unlist, unslit

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inˈsul(t)/

Noun

insult m (plural insults)

1. insult