contumely (n.)
"insolent, offensive, abusive speech," late 14c., from Old French contumelie, from Latin contumelia "a reproach, insult," probably derived from contumax "haughty, stubborn, insolent, unyielding," used especially of those who refused to appear in a court of justice in answer to a lawful summons, from assimilated form of com-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see com-), + tumere "to swell up" (from PIE root *teue- "to swell").
The unhappy man left his country forever. The howl of contumely followed him across the sea, up the Rhine, over the Alps; it gradually waxed fainter; it died away; those who had raised it began to ask each other, what, after all, was the matter about which they had been so clamorous, and wished to invite back the criminal whom they had just chased from them. [Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Lord Byron," 1877]
Entries linking to contumely
word-forming element usually meaning "with, together," from Latin com, archaic form of classical Latin cum "together, together with, in combination," from PIE *kom- "beside, near, by, with" (compare Old English ge-, German ge-). The prefix in Latin sometimes was used as an intensive.
Before vowels and aspirates, it is reduced to co-; before -g-, it is assimilated to cog- or con-; before -l-, assimilated to col-; before -r-, assimilated to cor-; before -c-, -d-, -j-, -n-, -q-, -s-, -t-, and -v-, it is assimilated to con-, which was so frequent that it often was used as the normal form.
*teuə-, also *teu-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to swell."
It forms all or part of: butter; contumely; creosote; intumescence; intumescent; protuberance; protuberant; psychosomatic; somato-; -some (3) "body, the body;" soteriology; Tartuffe; thigh; thimble; thousand; thole (n.); thumb; tumescent; tumid; tumor; truffle; tuber; tuberculosis; tumult; tyrosine.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Avestan tuma "fat;" Greek tylos "callus, lump;" Latin tumere "to swell," tumidus "swollen," tumor "a swelling;" Lithuanian tukti "to become fat;" Lithuanian taukas, Old Church Slavonic tuku, Russian tuku "fat of animals;" Old Irish ton "rump."
updated on June 27, 2021
Dictionary entries near contumely
controvert
contubernal
contumacious
contumacy
contumelious
contumely
contusion
contusive
conundrum
conurbation
conus
