different between abusive vs insufferable

English

Etymology

First attested in the 1530s. From French abusif, from Latin ab?s?vus, from abusus + -ivus (“-ive”). Equivalent to abuse +? -ive.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??bju?.s?v/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??bju.s?v/, /??bju.z?v/

Adjective

abusive (comparative more abusive, superlative most abusive)

1. Prone to treat someone badly by coarse, insulting words or other maltreatment; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous. [First attested in the early 17th century.]

2. (obsolete) Tending to deceive; fraudulent. [Attested only from the early to mid 17th century.]
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     an abusive treaty

3. (archaic) Tending to misuse; practising or containing abuse. [First attested in the late 16th century.]
4. Being physically or emotionally injurious; characterized by repeated violence or other abuse.
5. Wrongly used; perverted; misapplied; unjust; illegal. [First attested in the mid 16th century.]
6. (archaic) Catachrestic. [First attested in the mid 16th century.]

Synonyms

• (prone to treating badly): reproachful, scurrilous, opprobrious, insolent, insulting, injurious, offensive, reviling, berating, vituperative

Derived terms

• abusively
• abusiveness

Translations

References

French

Adjective

abusive

1. feminine singular of abusif

Italian

Adjective

abusive

1. feminine plural of abusivo

Latin

Adjective

ab?s?ve

1. vocative masculine singular of ab?s?vus

References

• abusive in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

English

Etymology

in- +? sufferable

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): [?n?s?f??bl?]
• (US) enPR: ?n-s?f'?r-?-b?l, IPA^(key): /?n?s?f??b?l/, [?n?s?f??bl?]

Adjective

insufferable (comparative more insufferable, superlative most insufferable)

1. Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure.
   • 1894, Henry James, The Coxon Fund, ch. 4:

     Saltram was incapable of keeping the engagements which, after their separation, he had entered into with regard to his wife, a deeply wronged, justly resentful, quite irreproachable and insufferable person.

   • 1913, Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, ch. 13:

     Marvell . . . thought Peter a bore in society and an insufferable nuisance on closer terms.

   • 2011 June 7, "Chaos in Syria," Time:

     The oppressive heat has become insufferable in Syria — and as the temperature climbs, emotions get harder to contain.

Synonyms

• intolerable, unbearable

Related terms

• insufferableness
• insufferably

Translations

References

• insufferable at OneLook Dictionary Search