Dictionary

asininity en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English asinine Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-ts Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts Latin -itāsder. Old French -itebor. Middle English -ite English -ity English asininity From asinine + -ity.

Meanings

1. (uncountable) The quality of being asinine; obstinate stupidity
   • He speaks of certain actions of the president of the cabinet as throwing an ugly light upon his character; he calls an apparently dishonest vote of another member of the cabinet “rotten” (hundsföttisch, which is even stronger and not translatable); and he mentions, without comment, “Lenz’s asininity”—not an unduly strong term, for Lenz, his gifted but mentally unsound Strassburg friend, had for Goethe's sake been hospitably received at the Weimar court and had had committed an indiscretion which made him quite impossible there. 1929, Hugo Karl Schilling, Goethe in His Diaries, page xvi:
2. (countable) An asinine remark, behaviour, etc.

Forms

Translations (9)

de Dämlichkeit (asinine remark, etc.) · fi aasimaisuus (asinine remark, etc.) · de Dämlichkeit (quality of being asinine) · it ciucata (asinine remark, etc.) · de Dümmlichkeit (quality of being asinine) · it asineria (asinine remark, etc.) · de Eselei (asinine remark, etc.) · el γαϊδουριά (asinine remark, etc.) · de Dümmlichkeit (asinine remark, etc.)