insolence

English

Etymology

From Middle French insolence, from Latin īnsolentia.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɪn.sə.ləns/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Noun

insolence (countable and uncountable, plural insolences)

Contemptible, ill-mannered conduct; insulting: arrogant, bold behaviour or attitude.
- 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 14, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC:
  all the insolence of imaginary superiority
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Chapter XVIII. The Fête.”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 133:
  There she was, doing rude things, and saying ruder, which every body bore with the best grace in the world: then, as now, it was perfectly astonishing what people in general will submit to in the way of insolence, provided the said insolence be attended by rank and riches.
- 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 2:
  The coarseness and truth of her attack alike overwhelmed him. But her supreme insolence found him words, and he too burst forth. "Yes! and I forbid you to do it! You despise me, perhaps, and think I'm feeble. But you're mistaken. You are ungrateful, impertinent, and contemptible, but I will save you in order to save Irma and our name.
- c. 1908–52, W.D. Ross, transl., The Works of Aristotle, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Rhetoric, II.1389b11, by Aristotle, →OCLC, page 636:
  They are fond of fun and therefore witty, wit being well-bred insolence.
Insolent conduct or treatment; insult.
- 1652, Thomas Fuller, The Holy State, and the Profane State‎^[1], page 442:
  Two heavy iron chains were put about his neck, (in metal and weight different from them he bore before!) and, loaded with fetters and insolences from the soldiers, (who in such ware seldom give scant measure,) he was brought into the presence of Isaacius.
(obsolete) The quality of being unusual or novel.
- 1595, Ed. Spencer [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “Colin Clouts Come Home Againe”, in Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London: […] T[homas] C[reede] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  Her great excellence / Lifts me above the measure of my might / That being fild with furious insolence / I feele my selfe like one yrapt in spright.

Derived terms

Translations

arrogant conduct; insulting, bold behaviour or attitude

Armenian: please add this translation if you can
Belarusian: наха́бнасць f (naxábnascʹ), наха́бства n (naxábstva), зухва́льства n (zuxválʹstva)
Bulgarian: наха́лство (bg) n (nahálstvo), безо́чие (bg) n (bezóčie), дъ́рзост (bg) f (dǎ́rzost), на́глост (bg) f (náglost)
Catalan: insolència f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 蠻橫／蛮横 (zh) (mánhèng), 粗野 (zh) (cūyě)
Czech: drzost (cs) f
Danish: frækhed c, uforskammethed c, skamløshed c
Dutch: onbeschoftheid (nl) f, onbeschaamdheid (nl) f, brutaliteit (nl) f
Faroese: frekleiki
Finnish: röyhkeys (fi), julkeus (fi)
French: insolence (fr) f
German: Unverfrorenheit (de) f, Frechheit (de) f, Unverschämtheit (de) f, Dreistigkeit (de) f, Anmaßung (de) f
Icelandic: ósvífni f
Interlingua: insolentia
Irish: borrachas m
Japanese: 横柄 (ja) (おうへい, ōhei)
Macedonian: дрскост f (drskost)
Manx: neuarrym m
Norwegian:
Bokmål: frekkhet m or f
Ottoman Turkish: پیشانی (pişanî)
Polish: arogancja (pl) f, bezczelność (pl) f, bezwstydność (pl) f, hucpiarstwo n, impertynenckość f, zuchwalstwo (pl) n, zuchwałość (pl) f
Portuguese: insolência (pt) f
Romanian: insolență (ro) f, obrăznicie (ro) f
Russian: на́глость (ru) f (náglostʹ), наха́льство (ru) n (naxálʹstvo), де́рзость (ru) f (dérzostʹ), высокоме́рие (ru) n (vysokomérije) (arrogance), надме́нность (ru) f (nadménnostʹ) (arrogance)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: др̏ско̄ст f

Roman: dȑskōst (sh) f
Slovak: drzosť f
Slovene: predrznost f, nesramnost f, nadutost f
Spanish: insolencia (es) f
Swedish: fräckhet (sv) c, oförskämdhet (sv) c
Tagalog: himusong, kahimusungan
Ukrainian: наха́бство n (naxábstvo), наха́бність f (naxábnistʹ), зухва́льство n (zuxválʹstvo), зухва́лість f (zuxválistʹ)

Verb

insolence (third-person singular simple present insolences, present participle insolencing, simple past and past participle insolenced)

(obsolete) To insult.
- 1851, Church Wardens of Burlington, “The Church Wardens &c. of Burlington to the Honourable Society. Burlington, 28th, 1715”, in Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society, volume 1, →OCLC, page 76:
  ...we are bound to assert that we never heard either in his public discourses or private conversation, anything that might tend towards encouraging sedition, or anyways insolencing the government
- 1648, attributed to Charles I of England, Εἰκὼν Βασιλική [Eikōn Basilikē = Royal Portrait]. The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Maiestie, in His Solitvdes and Svfferings:
  bishops, who were first foully insolenced and assaulted.