insolent

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnsolēns (“unaccustomed, unusual; excessive, immoderate; haughty, arrogant”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed from in- (“not”) and solēns, the present participle of soleō (“to be accustomed”).^[2][3][7] Skeat and Weekley took it through French,^[8][9] but the OED records insolent only from 1549.^[2] According to Etymonline, the Latin verb is from Proto-Italic *sol-e- and of uncertain origin: an old guess connects it with sodālis (“close companion”) and suēscō (“to become used to”), as Barnhart and Merriam-Webster do, but de Vaan rejects this on phonetic grounds; another connects it with solum (“ground”), through a shift from "inhabit" to "be accustomed", or with Proto-Indo-European *sel- (“human settlement”).^[3][6][10] Skeat suggested instead "swelling against", taking in- as "against" and the rest as a root meaning to swell.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Proud, arrogant and contemptuous of others: about 1386, in Chaucer's Parson's Tale,^[2] the only use of the word in Chaucer.^[11] Barnhart says about 1390, and Etymonline the late 14th century.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

At first the word described those above others: the OED notes that the older sense was said of the powerful, the rich and the successful, and it records this sense up to 1858.^[2] Johnson's definition of 1755 is still "contemptuous of others; haughty; overbearing".^[12] The modern direction of the insult, from below, appears in 1678, in Marvell, with the sense of being contemptuous of rightful authority.^[2][3][5] Meanwhile the literal Latin senses were tried in English and dropped: unfrequented, of land, about 1420;^[2][13] inexperienced, before 1505 to 1598;^[2] unusual or strange, 1581 to 1655.^[2][14] So was the sense of immoderate or extravagant, from before 1500 to 1712,^[2][15][16] and a rare approving use in Puttenham (1589), of Raleigh's vein as most lofty, insolent, and passionate.^[2][9] The noun, an insolent person, is recorded before 1616, in Shakespeare's King John.^[2] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, says that the word had come to be used chiefly of language that is intentionally rude and defiant.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – proud, disdainful, overbearing.^[2][11]
• c. 1420 – unfrequented, of land (rare).^[2][13]
• before 1500 – extravagant, immoderate (last recorded 1712).^[2]
• before 1505 – unused to a thing, inexperienced (last recorded 1598).^[2]
• 1581 – unaccustomed, unusual, strange (last recorded 1655).^[2]
• before 1616 – noun, an insolent person.^[2]
• 1678 – contemptuous of rightful authority; impertinently insulting.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Rude and disrespectful, especially towards authority; impertinent: The clerk's insolent reply cost him his post.^[17][10][2]
2. Haughty and contemptuous in behaviour or language; overbearing.^[10][12] The OED treats this older use as obsolete after 1858.^[2]
3. (obsolete, before 1500–1712) Going beyond proper limits; extravagant, immoderate.^[2][14]
4. (obsolete, before 1505–1598) Unused to a thing; inexperienced.^[2][14]
5. (obsolete, 1581–1655) Unusual or strange.^[2][14]

Noun

1. An insolent person.^[10][2][14]

Word family

• insolently
• overinsolent

Related words

• insolence

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 o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins