Affronting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causing offense or showing disrespect to someone by rude or insulting behavior
2. Displaying actions or words that deliberately upset or humiliate another person
3. Behaving in a manner that affronts others by being disrespectful or insulting

Etymology: The verb "affront" began with a literal blow to the face. Its Old French ancestor "afronter" meant "to hit in the face" or "to defy," and it grew from a Vulgar Latin verb "affrontare," built from Latin "ad" ("to") and "frons," meaning "forehead." Medieval English borrowed the word as "afrounten," so the core image of confronting someone face to face, and striking them there, sits at the heart of the sense. The "front" in the word is the same "front" English uses today for the forehead-facing side of things, which is why the surface-level reading "af- plus front" looks plausible. The prefix is really the Latin "ad," which Old French reduced to "a-" before a double consonant, and the stem "front" comes straight from Latin "frons." Over time the physical blow faded into a social one. To affront someone came to mean insulting them to their face, and the present form "affronting" describes behaviour that openly offends or disrespects others.

Synonyms: insulting, offending, disrespecting

Antonyms: respecting, honoring