insulto

Forms

insulto m (plural insultos)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Late Latin insultus (“a scoffing, reviling; an attack”), which Corominas dates to the second quarter of the 15th century.^[2][3] The Latin noun is formed on īnsiliō (“to leap on or into”), from in- and saliō (“to leap”).^[1][4] In Church Latin it meant “scoffing, insult”, and Medieval Latin used it both for an attack and for an affront.^[5][6]

Beside the noun, Latin had the frequentative verb īnsultō (“to leap upon; to scoff at”), from which Spanish took insultar about 1490.^[2][7] Italian insulto has the same origin, and French insulte came through Middle French, probably from the Medieval Latin noun.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is the Gran crónica de Alfonso XI (written 1348–1379, known from a copy of the late 15th or early 16th century), where a chapter heading speaks of the ynsultos e rrobos “outrages and robberies” committed across the kingdom.^[9] The first text preserved in a contemporary copy is Enrique de Villena's glossed translation of the Aeneid (1427–1428), on the insulto e alboroço “assault and tumult” raised by the common people.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th to 17th centuries the word meant a wicked or violent deed, especially a sudden assault: Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as a bad, bold and scandalous act, and the Diccionario de Autoridades as a violent or sudden attack meant to do harm, and also the damage it caused.^[10][11] Terreros, at the end of the 18th century, put first the sense of an affront in word or deed made to someone in public, and kept the military sense of a sudden assault on a town without a formal siege.^[12]

From 1817 the Academy defined it as the action and effect of insulting, and kept the attack and a sudden illness or fit as further senses.^[13] The DLE now labels these two senses obsolete.^[3] The sense of a fit survives regionally: “fright” and “fit of temper” in the Canaries, a sudden faint in the Dominican Republic, an upset stomach in Tabasco and Guatemala, and a skin irritation in Venezuela.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Timeline

• 1348–1379 – the Gran crónica de Alfonso XI (in a copy of about 1500) speaks of ynsultos e rrobos.^[9]
• 1427–1428 – Enrique de Villena uses insulto for a popular riot in his glosses on the Aeneid.^[9]
• 1458 – the first record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[18]
• 1545 – the first record from the Americas, in Honduras: todos los insultos que los hombres desalmados … hazen.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a wicked, bold and scandalous deed.^[10]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the senses “sudden violent attack” and “harm caused by it”.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary defines it as the action and effect of insulting.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin insultus.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. An insult: a word, remark or act that offends or humiliates someone: Sus palabras fueron un insulto para todos.^[3][21]
2. (obsolete) A sudden, violent assault or attack.^[3][11]
3. (obsolete) A sudden fit or faint (accidente).^[3][21]
4. (Dominican Republic) A sudden faint without apparent cause.^[15]
5. (Canary Islands) A great fright; a fit of anger.^[14]
6. (Venezuela) A skin irritation;^[17] (Guatemala) discomfort from overeating.^[17]

Related words

• insultar
• insultante
• saltar
• Latin insultus
• French insulte

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. saltar
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. insulto
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. insiliō
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. insultus
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. insultō
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 703
9. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. insulto
10. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1049
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 287
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 357
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 498
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle
15. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. insulto
16. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 618
17. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. insulto
18. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. insulto
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. insulto
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 562
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. insulto