different between insidious vs intriguing

English

Etymology

From Middle French insidieux, from Latin ?nsidi?sus (“cunning, artful, deceitful”), from ?nsidiae (“a lying in wait, an ambush, artifice, stratagem”) + -?sus, from ?nside? (“to sit in or on”), from in (“in, on”) + sede? (“to sit”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?s?di.?s/

Adjective

insidious (comparative more insidious, superlative most insidious)

1. Producing harm in a stealthy, often gradual, manner.
   • 2007, Sharon Weinstein, Ada Lawrence Plumer, Principles and practice of intravenous therapy

     The nurse always must be alert to signs of slow leak or insidious infiltration.

2. Intending to entrap; alluring but harmful.
   • The insidious whispers of the bad angel.

   • 1948, D.V. Chitaley (editor or publisher), All India Reporter, volume 3, page 341:

     All these facts clearly appear to me now to establish that the sanctioned scheme was a part of a bigger and […] more insidious scheme which was to hoodwink the creditors and to firmly establish and consolidate the position […]

   • 1969, Dorothy Brewster, John Angus Burrell, Dead reckonings in fiction

     The atmosphere of this insidious city comes out to meet him the moment he touches the European shore; for in London he meets Maria Gostrey just over from France.

   • 2005, Anita Desai, Voices in the City, page 189:

     This seemed to her the worst defilement into which this insidious city had cheated her and in her agitation, she nearly ran into the latrine, […]

   • 2007, Joseph Epstein, Narcissus Leaves the Pool, page 171:

     This is the insidious way sports entrap you: you follow a player, which commits you to his team. You begin to acquire scraps of utterly useless information about teammates, managers, owners, trainers, agents, lawyers.

   Hansel and Gretel were lured by the witch’s insidious gingerbread house.

3. (nonstandard) Treacherous.

   The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.

Derived terms

• insidiously
• insidiousness

Related terms

Translations

References

• insidious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• insidious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “insidious” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?t?i????/

Adjective

intriguing (comparative more intriguing, superlative most intriguing)

1. Causing a desire to know more; mysterious.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:mysterious

2. (archaic) Having clandestine or illicit intercourse.
   • 1839, Michael Ryan, Prostitution in London (page 83)

     […] few respectable women will now sit at a window, looking into the public street, or gaze at passengers in any large town or city; and no one does so at present, unless an innocent inexperienced, husband-hunting, flirtish, or intriguing person.

Synonyms

• fascinating, interesting, attractive

Translations

Verb

intriguing

1. present participle of intrigue

Noun

intriguing (plural intriguings)

1. (dated) An intrigue.
   • 1909, Thomas Longueville, The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck

     In all these negotiations, and caballings, and intriguings, the person most concerned, Frances Coke, the beauty and the heiress, was only the ball in the game.