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The Middle English "afronten," the ancestor of the Modern English verb "affront," was borrowed from the Anglo-French afrunter, a verb which means "to defy" but which also has the specific meaning "to strike on the forehead" or "to slap on the face." These more literal senses reveal the word's Latin origins, a combination of the Latin prefix ad-, meaning "to" or "towards," and "front-, frons," which means "forehead" (and which is also the source of the English word front). While the striking or slapping sense of "afrunter" was not adopted by English, it is alluded to in the oldest uses of "afronten" in Middle English in the sense of "to insult especially to the face."
Examples of affront in a Sentence
Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 21 July 2025
Press antagonists to encounter each other while avoiding affronting political leaders.
—Victor Gaetan, Foreign Affairs, 25 Sep. 2015
Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 22 July 2025
This treatment is vile and an affront to our Constitution and our principles of equal protection under the law.
—Chicago Tribune, 17 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for affront
Cite this Entry
“Affront.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affront. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.
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