Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Rudeness or contempt arising from arrogance; insolence.
- n. An insolent or arrogant remark or act.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Insolently offensive or abusive speech; haughtiness and contempt expressed in words; overbearing or reviling language; contemptuousness; insolence.
- n. A contumelious statement or act; an exhibition of haughty contempt or insolence.
- n. Synonyms Abuse, rudeness, scorn.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Rudeness compounded of haughtiness and contempt; scornful insolence; despiteful treatment; disdain; contemptuousness in act or speech; disgrace.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a rude expression intended to offend or hurt
Etymologies
- Middle English contumelie, from Old French, from Latin contumēlia; akin to contumāx, insolent.
Examples
“He wept for that which had befallen him, but kept his affair secret, so none of his foes might exult over him nor any of his friends be troubled, knowing that, if he disclosed his secret, it would bring him naught but dishonour and contumely from the folk; wherefore he said in him self,”
“The etymology of the word contumely is doubtful but I am of the opinion that the derivation suggested here is not unsound.”
“That phrase was flung at them, I think, in contumely at one time, but, like many such phrases, it has been adopted.”
“In recent days there has been a great deal of ill-informed comment about our Deputy Prime Minister’s penchant for the game of croquet; he has suffered obloquy and had contumely poured over him – and dried contumely is a devil to brush off one’s jacket.”
“The Vicomte called the contumely heaped on his father's name and his own, "a disagreeable scene.”
“In this part of the country are to be found that race of persons known to the original natives as _Gavaches_: the word is one of contempt, taken from the Spanish; and the habit of treating these people with contumely, which is not even yet entirely worn out, comes from an early time: that is to say, so long ago as 1526; at which period a great part of the population on the banks of the Drot, and round La Réole and”
Béarn and the Pyrenees A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre
“Bonus points for dragging much-neglected "contumely" out of retirement, but otherwise it's babbling-as-usual over at the Pod Works.”
“Maybe "contumely" would be a better place to start.”
“The Eighth Commandment protects every man's honor; it condemns contumely which is an attack upon that honor.”
Explanation of Catholic Morals A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals
“Could he see with patience a Prince of Orange expelled as a sort of diminutive despot, with every kind of contumely, from the country, which that family of deliverers had so often rescued from slavery, and obliged to live in exile in another country, which owes its liberty to his house?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘contumely’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1073 more...
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Collected Words - List 2
I've been saving these words FOR YEARS. Now, I've found Wordie
gasconade, zaccheus, spoor, precentor, bombazine, otiose, khamsin, bruited, viva voce, whilom, lenitive, ebullition and 244 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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please pass the ly
Words that end in -ly that are nouns.
Please do not include words with double ll, for instance: ally, bully, belly; or words that can also be adjectives, for instance: elderly, melancholy.contumely, family, supply, reply, anomaly, assembly, doily, fly, homily, lily, monopoly, panoply and 20 more...
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Words that look like adverbs but aren't
manly, womanly, ungainly, slovenly, homily, costly, dastardly, family, sparkly, wrinkly, oily, orderly and 69 more...
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Censure (n.)
aspersion, calumny, contumely, diatribe, obloquy, opprobrium, philippic, tirade, vilipendency, tantalization, admonition, beration and 23 more...
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carolinacc's list
jettisoned, yearn, chrestomathy, catachresis, elation, gesundheit, ohne, tertium quid, iota, oscillation, argillous, flagrate and 67 more...
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The Aleph
Words found in a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
travail, magnanimous, troglodyte, euphorbia, satyr, lascivious, caustic, frontispiece, temerity, vertiginous, frieze, cupola and 72 more...
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Things You've Heard in Your Dreams
Oh yes... dreams can be funny things sometimes.
the one the banan..., electio, the number 227 is..., ...and that's whe..., you have to hurry..., you have a really..., the bag of cupcak..., I told you to fil..., the lanai is hypa..., everything is har..., contumely
Casey "'Yeah, well, you thought wrong, didn't you, old son? You're nothing but a f*cking dreg, and I...' Isaac broke off from his contumely and stared in astonishment." From Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Dec 4, 2011
blafferty I had never heard this word before I heard it in a dream. In the dream, it was announced as the name of an ancient local deity at the site of an archeological excavation. May 26, 2011
sionnach My very first Wordie/Wordnik word! May 20, 2011
jmjarmstrong JM realises his contumely costume doesn’t fit anymore. Apr 13, 2011
brtom -- It was the speech, mark you, the professor said, of a finished orator, full of courteous haughtiness and pouring in chastened diction, I will not say the vials of his wrath but pouring the proud man's contumely upon the new movement.
Joyce, Ulysses, 7 Jan 1, 2007
abbandono As a general rule, if the word appears in Hamlet, it deserves a comeback. Dec 4, 2006