affront
/əˈfrənt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.89 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An open or intentional offense, slight, or insult.
Example Sentences
- "But beſides, that ſuch a thought was inconſiſtent with the gravity of a Senate, how can one imagine that the Fathers would have dared affront the Wife of Aurelius, and the Mother of Commodus, or that they could think of giving offence to an Empreſs whom they afterwards Defied, and to an Emperor that was the darling of the army and people?"
- "European fear and contempt for the American Indian, Allen contends, largely came about because the sexual, economic, and political ways of the woman-centered tribes affronted their own patriarchal assumptions."
- "to affront death"
- "Avignon was beginning to settle down for the night – that long painful stretch of time which must somehow be affronted."
- "Many Iſlands there lie all over that ſea : but one above the reſt, and moſt renowned, is Tazata : for thither all the ſhipping from out of the Caſpian ſea and the Scythian Ocean, doe bend their courſe and there arrive : for that all the ſea coaſts doe affront the Levant, and turne into the Eaſt."
- "Sweet Gertrude leaue vs too, / For we haue cloſely ſent for Hamlet hither, / That he, as ’twere by accident, may there / Affront Ophelia."
Etymology
From Middle English afrounten, from Old French afronter (“to hit in the face; to defy”), from Vulgar Latin *affrontare (“to hit in the face”), from Latin ad (“to”) + frōns (“forehead”) (English front). By surface analysis, af- + front.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: afrounten, afronter, *affrontare, ad
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈfrənt/