Etymology: Partly (i) < affront v.; and partly (ii) < Middle French, French affront insult made to a person's face or in public (c1560), act of defying or mocking (1560 in faire un affront ), attack, assault (1587), something that causes offence (1607 in the passage translated in quot. 1607 at sense 5a) < affronter affront v. Compare Italian affronto meeting, encounter (a1321), insult, offence (a1566), and also German Affront (15th cent.; < French).

Etymology: < Old French, Middle French afronter, afrunter, Middle French, French affronter to stun or strike down (with a blow to the face or forehead), attack (both late 12th cent.), to shame, humiliate (1221; late 12th cent. in sense), to stand firm in the face of, stand up to (a person or thing) (early 13th cent.), to strike, injure (mid 14th cent.), to confront, (of a country) to adjoin or border upon, be contiguous with (both beginning of the 16th cent.), to come face to face with (1611 in Cotgrave), to insult (17th cent.), probably < a- a- prefix⁵ + front front n. Compare effront v.Compare post-classical Latin affrontare to border upon, delimit (9th cent.), and also Old Occitan afrontar to attack (end of the 12th cent.), to border upon (1239), Catalan afrontar to be contiguous with, border upon (early 14th cent.), to offend, insult (1420), to confront (15th cent.), Spanish afrontar (end of the 11th cent. in sense ‘to adjoin’, 13th cent in senses to ‘humiliate, confront, attack’, etc.), afrentar (end of the 15th cent.), Portuguese afrontar to insult openly (13th cent.), Italian affrontare (reflexive) to meet, encounter (a1321), to confront (14th cent.), to attack (15th cent.). The French verb was also borrowed into other Germanic languages: compare German affrontieren to attack, insult, mock, (17th cent.), Dutch affronten to insult (early 17th cent.).