contumely
nounUK /ˈkɒnt͡ʃuːməli/
Etymology From Old French contumelie, from Latin contumēlia (“insult”), perhaps from com- + tumeō (“swell”).
1
Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.
- For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, / The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely, [...]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- Think of the insults, wrongs, and contumelies, / Ye bear from your proud lords—that your hard toil / Manures their fertile fields—you plow the earth, / You sow the corn, you reap the ripen'd harvest,— / They riot on the produce!— [...]1794, Robert Southey, Wat Tyler. A Dramatic Poem. In Three Acts, London: J[ohn] M‘Creery, […] for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], published 1817, →OCLC, Act I, page 21:
4 more examples
- She had been subjected to contumely and cross-questoning and ill-usage through the whole evening.1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the Second, →ISBN, page 19:
- Every one who has ever tried to set the affairs of his neighbors straight for them must be aware that those who pursue this course lay themselves open not only to ingratitude, but to positive contumely.1897, Stanley John Weyman, “The Professor and the Harpy”, in For the Cause:
- Even the comfort of the bottle might conceivably fail him in this supreme crisis. At such an age nothing but a halter could cure the pangs of an unquenchable passion. And, besides, there was the wild exasperation aroused by the unjust aspersions and the contumely of the house, with the maddening impossibility to account for that mysterious thrashing, added to these simple and bitter sorrows.1911, Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes:
- What scorn, what contumely, would be his!1914, Grace Livingston Hill, The Best Man:
- Related terms
- contumacious, contumaciously, contumaciousness, contumacy, contumelious