Contumely vs Slight - What's the difference?
contumely | slight | Related terms |
Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.
* :
* 1857 , , Volume the Second, page 19 (ISBN 1857150570)
* 1914 , (Grace Livingston Hill), The Best Man :
* 1953 , (James Strachey), translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , Avon Books, p. 178:
* 1976 , (Robert Nye), Falstaff :
Small, weak or gentle; not decidedly marked; not forcible; inconsiderable; unimportant; insignificant; not severe.
* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
* (John Locke) (1632-1705)
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=2 Not stout or heavy; slender.
* Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
(obsolete) Foolish; silly; weak in intellect.
To treat as slight or not worthy of attention, to make light of.
* Cowper
To treat with disdain or neglect.
To act negligently or carelessly.
(military, of a fortification) To render no longer defensible by full or partial demolition.
To make even or level.
To throw heedlessly.
* Shakespeare
The act of slighting; a deliberate act of neglect or discourtesy.
* (Benjamin Franklin)
Sleight.
Contumely is a related term of slight.
As nouns the difference between contumely and slight
is that contumely is offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult while slight is the act of slighting; a deliberate act of neglect or discourtesy.As an adjective slight is
small, weak or gentle; not decidedly marked; not forcible; inconsiderable; unimportant; insignificant; not severe.As a verb slight is
to treat as slight or not worthy of attention, to make light of.contumely
English
Noun
- For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely [...].
- She had been subjected to contumely and cross-questoning and ill-usage through the whole evening.
- What scorn, what contumely , would be his!
- If this picture of the two psychical agencies and their relation to the consciousness is accepted, there is a complete analogy in political life to the extraordinary affection which I felt in my dream for my friend R., who was treated with such contumely during the dream's interpretation.
- I could think of no words adequate to the occasion. So I belched. Not out of contumely , you understand. It was a sympathetic belch, a belch of brotherhood.
slight
English
Adjective
(er)- Slight is the subject, but not so the praise.
- Some firmly embrace doctrines upon slight grounds.
citation, passage=Mother very rightly resented the slightest hint of condescension. She considered that the exclusiveness of Peter's circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom,
- his own figure, which was formerly so slight
- (Hudibras)
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* slightish * slightly * slightnessVerb
(en verb)- the wretch who slights the bounty of the skies
- (Clarendon)
- (Hexham)
- The rogue slighted me into the river.
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* slightinglyNoun
(wikipedia slight) (en noun)- Never use a slighting expression to her, even in jest; for slights in jest, after frequent bandyings, are apt to end in angry earnest.
- (Spenser)
