Insult

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The word insult is pronounced differently when it is used as a noun from the way in which it is pronounced as a verb.

  • The noun 'an insult' has the stress on the first syllable: 'IN-sult', IPA: /'ɪn sʌlt/.
  • The verb 'to insult' has the stress on the second syllable: 'in-SULT', IPA: /ɪn 'sʌlt/.


The phrase 'to add insult to injury' means, literally, 'to say something hurtful to someone who has already been hurt [physically]'. More loosely, it is used to mean 'to perform a further hurtful action [indeed or word] after an initial harm'. One might say, more literally, "The mechanic charged me £100 for the job, and then,to add insult to injury, he said my car was crap"; or more loosely, "The mechanic charged me £100 for the job, and then,to add insult to injury, the repair didn't work."
Note
This pattern of shifting stress in words that look identical but belong to two separate word classes is quite common in English.
Quirk (1985) (Appendix I.56 B) describes the most common: "When verbs of two syllables are converted into nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted from the second to the first syllable. The first syllable, typically a Latin prefix, often has a reduced vowel /ə/ in the verb but a full vowel in the noun: He was con-VICT-ed (IPA: /kən ˈvɪkt ɪd/) of theft, and so became a CON vict (IPA: /ˈkɒn vɪkt/)" [AWE's rendition of IPA].
There follows a list of some 57 "words having end-stress as verbs but initial stress as nouns in Br[itish] E[nglish]." Note that "in Am[erican] E[nglish], many have initial stress as verbs also". Quirk's list is the foundation of AWE's category:shift of stress. Additions have been made from, amongst others, Fowler, 1926-1996.