insinuendo

insinuendo

English

Etymology

Blend of insinuation +‎ innuendo

Noun

insinuendo (plural insinuendos or insinuendoes)

1. insinuation containing innuendo
   • 1888 Brander Matthews, Pen and Ink; Papers on Subjects of More Or Less Importance, p57

     Truly a man may wish, “O that mine enemy would let me write his Preface! Could I not damn with faint praise and stab with sharp insinuendo?” – to use the labor-saving and much-needed word thoughtlessly invented by the sable legislator of South Carolina.

   • 1918 Eugene Wood, "Missed It - The Big Idea," Boys' Life, Boy Scouts of America, Inc., p30

     It’s sort of an insinuendo, as Matt King says, that your mind could stand a good deal of improving and not hurt it any.

   • 1964 Milton Rokeach, The three Christs of Ypsilanti: a psychological study, Knopf, p131

     "I don't have it," says Leon. "It was done away with because of the negative insinuendo."