add insult to injury

English

Etymology

Derived from the fables of Phaedrus in the first century C.E.. The story was of a bald man who swats at a fly which has just landed on his head, but instead hits himself on the head. The fly comments, "You wished to kill me for a touch. What will you do to yourself since you have added insult to injury?" (quid facies tibi, Iniuriae qui addideris contumeliam?) The actual wording appears in English from the middle of the 18th century.

Pronunciation

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Verb

add insult to injury (third-person singular simple present adds insult to injury, present participle adding insult to injury, simple past and past participle added insult to injury)

1. (idiomatic) To further a loss with mockery or indignity; to worsen an already unfavorable situation.

   Synonym: heap insult on injury

   As if the hostile takeover weren't enough, to add insult to injury they scrapped ninety percent of our products and replaced them with their own.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 52:

     [...] the line crossed over an iron bridge spanning Ludgate Hill itself [...] neatly obliterating any view of St Paul's from Ludgate Circus and Fleet Street. A thousand people had put their names to a petition against the bridge. To add insult to injury it carried a small thicket of railway signals as well as regular steam trains.

Usage notes

• This expression permits little variation, except for heap insult on injury.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:make matters worse

Related terms

• insult to injury

Translations

to further a loss with mockery or indignity

Arabic: زَادَ الطِّينَ بِلَّةً (zāda ṭ-ṭīna billatan) Bengali: কাটা ঘায়ে নুনের ছিটে (bn) (kaṭa ghaẏe nuner chiṭe) Chinese: Mandarin: 雪上加霜 (zh) (xuě shàng jiā shuāng) Danish: føje spot til skade Finnish: pahentaa asiaa entisestään French: ajouter l'injure à l'insulte, pour couronner le tout (fr), comme si ça ne suffisait pas Galician: aínda por riba, sobre mel filloas Georgian: ცეცხლზე ნავთის დასხმა (cecxlze navtis dasxma) German: Salz in die Wunde streuen Greek: όλα του γάμου δύσκολα κι η νύφη γκαστρωμένη (óla tou gámou dýskola ki i nýfi gkastroméni) Hebrew: הוסיף חטא על פשע (literally “add sin to a crime”), הרצחת וגם ירשת (he) (literally “Murder and then inherit?”) Icelandic: bæta gráu ofan á svart, gera vont verra, bæta móðgun við meingjörð, blammera Irish: cuir an tarcaisne i gceann na héagóra Italian: oltre il danno la beffa Japanese: 傷口に塩を塗る (kizuguchi-ni shio-o nuru) Korean: 설상가상(雪上加霜) (ko) (seolsanggasang), 엎친 데 덮친 격 (eopchin de deopchin gyeok) Polish: na domiar złego (pl) Portuguese: esfregar sal na ferida (pt) Romanian: a răsuci cuțitul în rană Russian: сы́пать соль на ра́ну (ru) (sýpatʹ solʹ na ránu) Scottish Gaelic: bris mo chlaigeann air thùs, is an sin ciùrr mo chorrag Sicilian: nuttata persa e figghia fìmmina Spanish: echar leña al fuego, para colmo de males, para añadir insulto a la injuria, para añidir afrenta a la lesión Swedish: strö salt i såren Vietnamese: đổ thêm dầu vào lửa, xát muối vào vết thương

See also

• grave dancing