Word of the Day Archive
Saturday November 6, 2004
effrontery \ih-FRUN-tuh-ree\ , noun:
Insulting presumptuousness; shameless boldness; insolence.
Who would have the effrontery to treat the chairman in this way?
-- Tom King, The Operator
Passionately she sang of Yoshitsune, her love and yearning for him, and her joy that he had successfully managed to evade his evil half-brother Yoritomo. Yoritomo was torn between rage at such effrontery and pleasure at the exquisite beauty of her voice.
-- Lesley Downer, Women of the Pleasure Quarters
Effrontery is from French effronterie, ultimately from Late Latin effrons, effront-, "shameless," literally "without forehead" (to blush with), from Latin ex-, "out of" + frons, front-, "forehead."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for effrontery
