Obscenity vs Insult - What's the difference?
obscenity | insult |
(countable) Something that is obscene.
(countable) An act of obscene behaviour.
(countable) Specifically, an offensive word; a profanity; a dirty word.
(uncountable) The qualities that make something obscene; lewdness, indecency, or offensive behaviour.
(obsolete) To behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against).
*, II.3.3:
To offend (someone) by being rude, insensitive or insolent; to demean or affront (someone).
(obsolete) To leap or trample upon; to make a sudden onset upon.
An action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.
* Savage
* 1987 , Jamie Lee Curtis, A Fish Called Wanda :
Anything that causes offence/offense, e.g. by being of an unacceptable quality.
(medicine) Something causing disease or injury to the body or bodily processes.
* 2006 , Stephen G. Lomber, Jos J. Eggermont, Reprogramming the Cerebral Cortex (page 415)
* 2011 , Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford 2011, p. 96:
(obsolete) The act of leaping on; onset; attack.
As nouns the difference between obscenity and insult
is that obscenity is something that is obscene while insult is an action or form of speech deliberately intended to be rude.As a verb insult is
to behave in an obnoxious and superior manner (over, against).obscenity
English
Noun
(obscenities)- Martha wouldn't go into the art museum because, as she put it, "They have obscenities just sitting out, on display!"
- Bestiality was outlawed as an obscenity in the strongly conservative community.
- Eliza couldn't stand her daughter's music; as she saw it, it was just shouted obscenities and a heavy drum beat.
- The coalition of religious conservatives was campaigning against, in their view, rampant obscenity in the entertainment industry.
insult
English
Verb
(en verb)- thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job […].
- (Shakespeare)
Synonyms
* (to offend) abuse, affront, offend, slight * See alsoAntonyms
*complimentNoun
(en noun)- the ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief
- To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!
- The way the orchestra performed tonight was an insult to my ears.
- Within the complex genome of most organisms there are alternative multiple pathways of proteins which can help the individual cell survive a variety of insults , for example radiation, toxic chemicals, heat, excessive or reduced oxygen.
- (Dryden)
