different between derision vs contumely

English

Etymology

From Old French derision, from Latin d?r?si?nem, accusative of d?r?si?, from d?r?d?re ("to mock, to laugh at, to deride").

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??????n/
• Rhymes: -???n

Noun

derision (countable and uncountable, plural derisions)

1. Act of treating with disdain.
2. Something to be derided; a laughing stock.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 14:

     Miss Briggs was not formally dismissed, but her place as companion was a sinecure and a derision […]

Related terms

• deride
• derider
• ridicule
• ridiculous
• ridiculosity

Translations

Further reading

• derision in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• derision in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Ironside, ironised, ironside, resinoid

English

Etymology

From Old French contumelie, from Latin contum?lia (“insult”), perhaps from com- + tume? (“swell”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?ntju?m?li/

Noun

contumely (countable and uncountable, plural contumelies)

1. Offensive and abusive language or behaviour; scorn, insult.

   • 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

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

   • 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.

Related terms

• contumacious
• contumaciously
• contumaciousness
• contumacy
• contumelious

Translations

Further reading

• “contumely”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.