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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ASININE

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pronounce ASININE:

ASS uh nine
Your browser does not support the audio element.

connect this word to others:

To say that someone is as stupid as a donkey, call them asinine. I mean, if you must. Maybe not out loud?

For someone as greedy as a pig, call them p___ine.

For someone as predatory as a wolf, call them l__ine.

It's all very insulting, so let's change the tone. For someone as courageous, powerful, large, graceful, and kingly as a lion, call them le__ine.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) 

definition:

If you enjoy saying "asinine" because you get to emphasize the "ass," good news: that ass is there for a reason!

"Asinine" traces back to the Latin asinus, "ass." The animal, not the butt. 

Asses—the same as donkeys, but wild rather than domesticated—have a reputation for being really stupid. That's why the most literal meaning of "asinine" is "pertaining to asses."

Today, though, we most often use the figurative meaning. Asinine people or things are very stupid.

(Source)

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "an asinine procedure;" "It's asinine to charge a fee to a bank customer who accidentally overdraws their account. They don't have the money."

Other forms: 

The adverb is "asininely."

And the noun is "asininity," pronounced "ASS uh NIN uh tee." No, I would not be brave enough to pronounce it in public; I'd accidentally give it six or seven Ns instead of two. But I'd put it in print.

how to use it:

Pick the semi-common, very harsh word "asinine" to express just how deeply stupid something is.

You might talk about asinine questions, comments, ideas, plans, choices, behaviors, assumptions, expectations, conclusions, arguments, and so on.

Although you could describe a person as asinine, that's less common. We tend to slam the asinine things people do, say, and create, rather than the people themselves.

examples:

"Ornamenting its flimsy back story with assaultive sound effects and asinine behavior, 'Out of the Dark' strains to shock." 
— Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, 27 February 2015

"He points to the $150 Xbox Elite controller, which he says had its fair share of critics who claimed it would be asinine to try and sell a luxury good to a mainstream console audience."
— Nick Statt, The Verge, 2 October 2017

has this page helped you understand "asinine"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "asinine" without saying "foolish" or "fatuous."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Something) is an asinine goal. Yet (someone) keeps pursuing it."

Example 1: "Colonizing Mars within this lifetime is an asinine goal. Yet SpaceX keeps pursuing it."

Example 2: "Two hundred miles an hour is an arbitrary number, an asinine goal. Yet it's always been a benchmark for carmakers, the promise that engineering can beat physics." 
— Jason H. Harper, The Verge, 9 February 2016




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "The Tip of the Tongue!" 

You know how sometimes you'll be reaching for a perfect word, and it's right there at the tip of your tongue, where you can almost taste it? Somehow that word is caught in the liminal space between your memory and your mouth. This month, let's play with that experience, and practice resolving it to our satisfaction.

I'll give you a short quote from Chris Palmer's heartfelt and eye-opening new book, Achieving a Good Death: A Practical Guide to the End of Life, along with a blank where Chris has deployed a truly perfect word. To help bring that word to the tip of your tongue, I'll describe it both physically and semantically. 

Try this one today:

"Occasionally, [doctors] can be _____, thinking they know better than patients what’s good for them."

The word is 5 syllables long. Lots of those syllables (3!) are part of the suffix; it's a suffix-heavy word.

The word means "like a father, protecting you, but in an annoying way because although you're an adult, they're treating you like a child, taking away your choices."

To reveal the right word, scroll to the bottom of the issue.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of ASININE is

A. WISE.
B. MORAL.
C. REASSURING.

2. A writer for Gawker referred to a media figure as "asinine" and "_____."

A. the lone voice of reason in a world gone rabid
B. the intellectual equivalent of a large wet sponge
C. the miraculous survivor of a vicious otter attack




Answers to the review questions:
1. A
2. B

Answer to the game question:

"Occasionally, [doctors] can be paternalistic, thinking they know better than patients what’s good for them."


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
On vocabulary...
      36 ways to study words.
      Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
      How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
      How to improve any sentence.
      How to motivate our kids to write.
      How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
      How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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