Insult  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Friar John and Panurge give the Blason and contreblason du couillon by Rabelais

Les Poires, a caricature of French king Charles Philipon

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An insult is an expression, statement (or sometimes behavior) which is considered degrading, offensive and impolite. Insults (sometimes called "cracks" "remarks" or one-liners) may be intentional or accidental. An insult may be factual, but at the same time pejorative, such as the word "inbred".

Desmond Morris has noted in The Naked Ape that 'verbal insults often take a phallic form. Almost all the really vicious swearwords we can use to hurl abuse at someone are sexual words.......Visual insults follow the same trend'.

Etymology

Latin insultāre (“to jump at, insult”), ultimately from salīre (“to jump”).

See also

• Ad hominem
• Contreblasons
• Damning with faint praise
• Defamation
• Hate speech
• Invective
• Jibe
• Libel
• Maledicta
• Maledictology
• The finger
• Mock
• Pejorative
• Profanity
• Rudeness
• Satire
• Shoeing
• Taunt
• The Dozens, a game of "one-upmanship" involving insults or snaps usually related to the mother of one's opponent
• Wit