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Saturday November 6, 2004

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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

 

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