innuendo

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin innuendō (“by nodding at, by pointing to, by intimating”),^[2][3][4][5] the ablative of the gerund of innuō (“to nod to; to signify, mean”),^[2][4][6][7] which is formed from in- (“toward, at”) and nuō (“to nod”).^[3][4][8][6] In Medieval Latin the word was used, especially in legal documents, to introduce a parenthetical clause that explained what a preceding noun or pronoun referred to.^[2][4][9] The verb is related to nūtō (“to nod”) and nūmen,^[10][11][4] and so to English numinous and nutation.^[4][12][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a formula meaning "that is to say, namely", introducing an explanation in a legal text: 1564, in a record printed in Furnivall's Child-marriages, Divorces, and Ratifications.^[2][5] Merriam-Webster's history quotes a 16th-century example from the OED: “What-soeuer thinge it is, that knave your sonne—innuendo this deponentes sonne—made it & brought it to the Church.”^[9]

Semantic evolution

The legal formula was used in particular to introduce the defamatory meaning that a plaintiff in a libel case claimed lay in a statement, and this led to the general sense of a hint that implies something derogatory.^[4][8] The word also came to name the explanation itself (1701, in Defoe).^[2][5] From the late 17th century it meant an indirect hint or suggestion: 1678 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster, 1670s in Etymonline,^[5][11][4] 1689 in the OED.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "an oblique hint".^[13] Merriam-Webster's history notes that, unlike the parallel Latin borrowing scilicet, innuendo became a noun, and that the sense of a spiteful or even defamatory hint came to predominate.^[9] In legal use the noun still means the explanation of the meaning a plaintiff alleges in words complained of.^[14][15] A verb, to make innuendoes, is recorded from 1705,^[2] or 1706 in Etymonline.^[4]

Timeline

• 1564 – a formula introducing a parenthetical explanation in a legal document, "namely, that is to say".^[2][5]
• 1678 – an oblique hint or insinuation.^[5][11] The OED's first quotation for this sense is of 1689.^[2]
• 1701 – the parenthetical explanation itself.^[2]
• 1705 – verb, to make innuendoes.^[2]
• 1858 – verb, to convey by innuendo, to insinuate.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An indirect or veiled remark or hint, usually one that suggests something unpleasant or derogatory; an insinuation: The article was full of innuendo about the senator's finances.^[14][11][15]
2. (law) In a libel or slander action, the explanation of the meaning that the plaintiff claims the words complained of carried.^[14][15]
3. (law) A word introducing a parenthetical explanation in a legal document; such an explanation.^[14][15][2]

Verb

1. To make innuendoes; to suggest something by innuendo.^[11][2][16]

Related words

• numinous
• numen
• nutation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
15. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press