different between insidious vs oblique

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

Etymology

From Middle French oblique, from Latin obl?quus (also spelled obl?cus) (“slanting, sideways, indirect, envious”)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??bli?k/
• IPA^(key): /o??bli?k/
• (US military command) IPA^(key): /??b?laik/
• Rhymes: -i?k
• Hyphenation: ob?lique

Adjective

oblique (comparative obliquer, superlative obliquest)

1. Not erect or perpendicular; not parallel to, or at right angles from, the base

   Synonyms: aslant, askew, slanting, inclined
2. Not straightforward; obscure or confusing
3. disingenuous; underhand; morally corrupt
4. Not direct in descent; not following the line of father and son; collateral.
5. (botany, of leaves) Having the base of the blade asymmetrical, with one side lower than the other.
6. (botany, of branches or roots) Growing at an angle that is neither vertical nor horizontal.
7. (grammar) Pertaining to the oblique case (non-nominative).
8. (grammar, of speech or narration) Indirect; employing the actual words of the speaker but as related by a third person, having the first person in pronoun and verb converted into the third person and adverbs of present time into the past, etc.
9. (music) Employing oblique motion, motion or progression in which one part (voice) stays on the same note while another ascends or descends.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

oblique (plural obliques)

1. (geometry) An oblique line.
2. (typography) Synonym of slash ?/?.
   • 1965, Dmitri A. Borgmann, Language on Vacation, page 240:

     Initial inquiries among professional typists uncover names like slant, slant line, slash, and slash mark. Examination of typing instruction manuals discloses additional names such as diagonal and diagonal mark, and other sources provide the designation oblique.

   • 1990, John McDermott, Punctuation for Now, page 20:

     Other Chaucerian manuscripts had the virgule (or virgil or oblique: /) at the middle of lines.

3. (grammar) The oblique case.

Synonyms

• (typography): See slash

Derived terms

• oblique mark
• oblique stroke, stroke

Verb

oblique (third-person singular simple present obliques, present participle obliquing, simple past and past participle obliqued)

1. (intransitive) To deviate from a perpendicular line; to become askew;
2. (military) To march in a direction oblique to the line of the column or platoon; — formerly accomplished by oblique steps, now by direct steps, the men half-facing either to the right or left.
3. (transitive, computing) To slant (text, etc.) at an angle.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obl?quus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?.blik/

Adjective

oblique (plural obliques)

1. oblique

Derived terms

• barre oblique
• cas oblique

Verb

oblique

1. first-person singular present indicative of obliquer
2. third-person singular present indicative of obliquer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of obliquer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of obliquer
5. second-person singular imperative of obliquer

Further reading

• “oblique” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Adjective

oblique

1. feminine plural of obliquo

Latin

Adjective

obl?que

1. vocative masculine singular of obl?quus

References

• oblique in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• oblique in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• oblique in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette