Talk:insult

"Anything that causes offence/offense by being of an unacceptable quality.
 * The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears. "

lol. i think this article got it all wrong. an insult is not necessarily something rude, but is something that belittles something of value to another. w:user:lygophile 18:54, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Medical
Medical "insult" isn't here. Not being in medicine myself, I won't try to offer an explanation, but it refers to injury. 97.101.81.249 13:23, 31 January 2008 (UTC)


 * ✅ We have it now. Equinox ◑ 18:17, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

To say something bad about someone?
I was thinking of that sense, as in "Never, insult, my family members, in front of me" even though they aren't around (and I'm not talking about my family, though; it could be about someone's family). Here's another from the Harry Potter books/movies: "Never - insult - Albus Dumbledore - in front of me." What sense would that be? --Lo Ximiendo (talk) 18:09, 10 December 2012 (UTC)


 * It is sense 1 (be rude, etc. to somebody) though in this case I suppose you are being rude about them, rather than directly to them. We could pedantically change it to "to or about". Equinox ◑ 14:46, 26 May 2019 (UTC)

Request for Shakespeare
I don't know how to edit Wiktionary, or I'd put these quotations in myself, but I saw the request for Shakespeare, and used OpenSourceShakespeare.org to find these:
 * So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch
 * That trembles under his devouring paws;
 * And so he walks, insulting o'er his prey,
 * And so he comes, to rend his limbs asunder.
 * —Henry VI, Part III, 1.3.389–92


 * Give me thy knife, I will insult on him;
 * Flattering myself, as if it were the Moor
 * Come hither purposely to poison me.
 * —Titus Andronicus, 3.2.1518–20

Lereman (talk) 17:43, 18 April 2016 (UTC)


 * ✅. — SGconlaw (talk) 17:04, 1 February 2020 (UTC)

Ergative construction
I recently saw this used ergatively: "I don't insult easily." Slightly odd, isn't it? Equinox ◑ 14:47, 26 May 2019 (UTC)