English

Noun

contumely ‎(countable and uncountable, plural contumelies)

1. Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark:

     For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time, The Oppressors wrong, the poore mans Contumely [...].

   • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the Second, page 19 (ISBN 1857150570)

     She had been subjected to contumely and cross-questoning and ill-usage through the whole evening.

   • 1914, Grace Livingston Hill, The Best Man:

     What scorn, what contumely, would be his!

   • 1953, James Strachey, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Avon Books, p. 178:

     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.

   • 1976, Robert Nye, Falstaff:

     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.

Related terms

• contumacious
• contumaciously
• contumaciousness
• contumacy
• contumelious

Translations