# insult

Pronunciation: say "IN-sult" /ˈɪnsʌlt/

## Noun

1. Deliberately rude speech or behavior, or a particular remark or act intended to offend.
   - Simple: Rude words or behavior meant to hurt someone, or a single rude remark.
   - _He took the joke as a deliberate insult._
   - _Her speech was full of insult, thinly disguised as advice._
3. Something that makes people feel offended or disrespected, perhaps because its quality is unacceptably poor.
   - Simple: Something so bad or unfair that it makes people feel they are not respected.
   - _The settlement offer was an insult to the victims' families._
   - _Critics dismissed the remake as an insult to the original film._
4. Something that causes disease or damage to the body or its processes, or the injury that results.
   - Simple: Something that harms the body or makes it sick, or the harm that it causes.
   - _Repeated chemical insult eventually scarred the lung tissue._
   - _Doctors monitored the patient for signs of further neurological insult after the stroke._

## Verb

Pronunciation: say "in-SULT" /ɪnˈsʌlt/

2. To be insensitive or rude to someone; to affront or demean a person.
   - Simple: To say or do something rude that hurts or shames someone.
   - _The reviewer managed to insult the entire cast in a single sentence._
   - _The host insulted her guests by yawning through their toasts._

## Noun

5. An assault or attack; specifically, in older military use, an assault or onset carried out without preparation. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An attack, especially a sudden one made without preparing first.
   - _The garrison drove back the first insult but fell to the second._
   - _Hoping to catch the sentries asleep, the captain ordered an insult on the camp without waiting for the cannon to arrive._
9. An act of leaping upon something or someone. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An act of jumping on top of something or someone.

## Verb

Pronunciation: say "in-SULT" /ɪnˈsʌlt/

6. To assail, assault, or attack; specifically, in military use, to carry out a sudden assault or attack without preparation. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To attack a place or person suddenly, without preparing first.
7. To act toward someone in an arrogant, offensive way, as though one were above them. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To act proud and mean toward someone, especially a person you have beaten.
8. To leap upon something, or to trample it underfoot. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To jump on top of something, or to stamp on it with force.

## Origin

The verb comes, via Middle French 'insulter', from Latin 'īnsultō' (to spring or leap at or upon; also to abuse, insult, or taunt), a frequentative of 'īnsiliō' (to leap in or upon), from 'in-' plus 'saliō' (to jump or leap), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sel- (to spring). The noun similarly derives, via Middle French 'insult', from Late Latin 'insultus' (insult, reviling, scoffing).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/insult (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).