insult: [16] The -sult of insult comes from a word that meant ‘jump’. Its source was Latin insultāre ‘jump on’, a compound verb based on saltāre ‘jump’. This was a derivative of salīre ‘jump’, source in one way or another of English assail, assault, desultory, salacious, and salient. Old French took insultāre over as insulter and used it for ‘triumph over in an arrogant way’. This was how the word was originally used in English, but at the beginning of the 17th century the now familiar sense ‘abuse’ (which had actually developed first in the Latin verb) was introduced. => assail, assault, desultory, salacious, salient
insult (v.)
1560s, "triumph over in an arrogant way," from Middle French insulter (14c.) and directly from Latin insultare "to assail, to leap upon" (already used by Cicero in sense of "insult, scoff at, revile"), frequentative of insilire "leap at or upon," from in- "on, at" (see in- (2)) + salire "to leap" (see salient (adj.)). Sense of "to verbally abuse, affront, assail with disrespect" is from 1610s. Related: Insulted; insulting.
insult (n.)
c. 1600 in the sense of "attack;" 1670s as "an act of insulting," from Middle French insult (14c.) or directly from Late Latin insultus, from insilire (see insult (v.)). To add insult to injury translates Latin injuriae contumeliam addere.