Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

Definition:

not interesting or exciting : dull or boring

Example:

Another stand-up comic, who did not want to be named, said any form of self-censorship will eventually make any art insipid, especially comedy.
— The Hindu (Chennai, Ind.), 5 Sept. 2022

About the Word:

The history of this word is far from insipid. Its Latin ancestor translates very loosely as "without wisdom, good taste, or good sense." That ancestor comes from sapere, which means "to taste," "to have good taste," or "to be wise." Sapere also gave us savor, savant, and sage.

Definition:

sweet or cute in a way that is silly or sentimental

Example:

It’s the tourists who substantially contribute to the pubs, wineries, restaurants, galleries, antique shops, twee little candle shops, service stations, supermarkets and other businesses.
— The Advertiser (Adelaide, Aus.), 12 Jul. 2022

About the Word:

Just as buddy is believed to be a baby talk alteration of brother, twee is a baby talk alteration of sweet. Although twee is still considered a chiefly British term, it's increasingly popular in American English.

Photo: sukigirl71 / flickr

Definition:

silly or stupid: complacently or inanely foolish

Example:

Sometimes, even widely circulated complaints are totally fatuous. People watch Titanic, for instance, and ask why Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t simply hop on the door alongside Kate Winslet at the end.
— The Independent (London, Eng.), 26 Aug. 2022

About the Word:

Long ago, fatuous meant "illusory," after ignis fatuus, the strange light (literally "foolish fire") that sometimes appears at night over marshy ground. The word's Latin root - the fatuus we see in ignis fatuus - is also behind the word infatuate, which once meant "to make foolish," but which now usually means "to inspire with foolish love or admiration."

Definition:

pretending to be morally better than other people

Example:

Thomas Scott appears to be a loving father, a decent neighbor and an all-around jolly good fellow. But the benevolent smile lurking under the pre-World War I mustache is deceiving: The man is a sanctimonious prig who siphons all the fun out of life.
— The New York Times, 5 Mar. 2019

About the Word:

Sanctimonious once meant "possessing sanctity; holy, sacred." The genuinely holy aspect faded, and William Shakespeare is credited with first using sanctimonious to mean "hypocritically pious or devout."

Definition:

having or showing a lack of intelligence or serious thought : lacking meaning, importance, or substance

Example:

"Anti-influencers" Matt Ford and Jack Steele lampoon the vacuous antics of social media stars.
— The Age (Melbourne, Aus.), 8 Sept. 2022

About the Word:

Although the word's Latin ancestor, vacuus, means "empty," it has enriched our language: it gave us not only vacuous but also vacuum and evacuate.

Definition:

revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality

Example:

Atul—with his pinched expression, unctuous smile, thin mustache, and disarmingly reedy voice—was the P.R. face of the family.
— Vanity Fair (New York, NY), Mar. 2019

About the Word:

Unction can mean "anointment" or it can name something used to anoint, such as a soothing or lubricating oil. That idea of oiliness led to unctuous, which can describe the slickness of false sincerity.

Definition:

having or showing a complete lack of courage : very cowardly

Example:

It was one of the most craven, cowardly acts in professional sports, only of course he didn't see it that way.
— Palladium-Item (Richmond, IN), 26 Aug. 2022

About the Word:

One of the earliest appearances of craven is in the phrase to cry craven, used to acknowledge defeat. The word probably comes from the Latin crepare, meaning "crack, creak, break," a root it shares with crevice.

Definition:

weak and afraid of danger

Example:

Showing the EU can still exert such clout is all the more vital in light of its absurdly pusillanimous response to Moscow's seizure of Navalny — sanctioning just four officials.
— Financial Times (London, Eng.), 24 Feb. 2021

About the Word:

This odd-looking word has ancestry in the Latin pusillus ("very small") plus animus ("soul, mind, spirit").

It's been used by such notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson ("It is a pusillanimous desertion of our work to gaze after our neighbours"), and the disgraced Vice-President Spiro Agnew, who called journalists "pusillanimous pussyfooters."

Definition:

difficult to control and often noisy

Example:

You can't see it from the street, but the book she's reading is “Where the Wild Things Are," Sendak's 1963 classic about an obstreperous boy's adventure within his own imagination.
— The Boston Globe, 15 Jul. 2022

About the Word:

"Unruly or aggressive noisiness" can be a hallmark of obstreperous; the word has an ancestor in the Latin strepere, meaning "to make noise." Strepere also turns up in the etymologies of the unusual terms strepitant and strepitous, both meaning "clamorous; noisy; boisterous."