Where does “insult” come from?
insult (Middle French) comes from Latin insultus, from Latin insilio, from Latin īn-, from Latin în, from Latin en, from Proto-Italic en, from Proto-Indo-European h₁én — in.
Ancestry of “insult”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Latin | insultus | a scoffing, reviling, insult |
| 2 | Latin | insilio | I leap upon or in; I bound |
| 3 | Latin | īn- | — |
| 4 | Latin | în | — |
| 5 | Latin | en | lookǃ beholdǃ; reallyǃ?; come onǃ |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | en | in |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁én | in |