The first thing we are going to do, before discovering the meaning of the term insolent, is to show you its etymological origin. Thus, we can indicate that it derives from Latin, exactly from “insolentis”, which can be translated as “that has no moderation” and that it is the result of the sum of several lexical components of said language:
-The prefix “in-”, which means “no” or “without”.
-The verb “solere”, which is synonymous with “to get used to” or “to be habitual”.
-The suffix “-nte”, which is used to indicate “agent”.
The first meaning mentioned by the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) in its dictionary refers to someone who incurs insolence .
Starting from that meaning, we can establish that among its synonyms are words such as shameless, daring, insulting, offensive, shameless, ribald or irreverent. On the contrary, among its antonyms we find terms such as restrained, polite or humble.
An insolence, on the other hand, is impudence or audacity . The insolent subject is brazen, has no shame , and can sometimes even be disrespectful . For example: “Don't be insolent and ask your grandfather for forgiveness! If not, you will be punished” , “Sometimes you have to be a little insolent to achieve important and lasting changes” , “The boy was always insolent in his posts on social networks” .
An insulting, slanderous or offending expression, action or fact can also be classified as insolent: “The union leader made an insolent speech that rekindled his confrontation with the governor,” “In an insolent act, the young man dropped his pants on stage.” as a gesture of rebellion” , “The footballer's statements were insolent: in my opinion, his club should sanction him” .
Suppose a teacher asks a student to come to the front of the class to teach. The teenager, when called, tells the teacher that he did not study. The woman then asks him why he did not fulfill his duty and the young man simply comments that he did not feel like studying since he found the topics very boring and he did not want to waste his time . Faced with this situation, it can be said that the student is insolent.
In the field of cinema we also have to highlight the use of the term in question to give titles to certain films. This would be the case of “La planta insolent”, which is of Venezuelan origin and which premiered in 2015 under the direction of Román Chalbaud. It tells how in 1906 the president of the country, Cipriano Castro, alerted the people of the attitude and insolent attitude of the foreigner who had desecrated the country's soil. This meant that Venezuela faced a total of six world powers.
There is also the French feature film titled “The Insolent,” which was presented in 1973 and was directed by Jean-Claude Roy. It tells the story of a criminal who manages to escape from prison.
“El insolent” , finally, is an album by Chilean Ángel Parra . The singer-songwriter presented this album, composed of eleven songs, in 1998 .