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Importunate vs Insist - What's the difference?

importunate | insist |

As verbs the difference between importunate and insist

is that importunate is (rare) to importune, or to obtain by importunity while insist is to hold up a claim emphatically.

As an adjective importunate

is of a demand: persistent or pressing, often annoyingly so.

importunate

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Of a demand: persistent or pressing, often annoyingly so.
  • Of a person: given to importunate demands, greedily or thoughtlessly demanding.
    • Related terms
    * importune

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Verb

    (importunat)
  • (rare) To importune, or to obtain by importunity.
  • * 1581 June 23, Thomas Churchyard, letter to Sir Christopher Hatton, in Sir Harris Nicolas (editor), Memoirs of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton, K.G. , Richard Bentley (publisher, 1847), page 173:
    • All which notwithstanding, I obtained licence at length to make my supplication to the noble Parliament house; but I could find no messengers till Sir John Seton went, whom I importunated daily to obtain me favor for my return home again.
  • * 1847 December 18, N. Roussel, “Spiritual Destitution of Paris.—Appeal to British Christians”, in Evangelical Christendom: Its State and Prospects , Volume II (1848), Partridge and Oakey, page 43:
    • Is my work ended? The fear of importunating my friends answers, “Yes.”
  • * 1910 July, David Leslie Brown, “The Need of To-day”, in , Volume 25, Southern Pacific Company, reverse of frontispiece:
    • It is the concrete that impresses, that importunates until it influences—in writing as in everything else.

    Anagrams

    * permutation ----

    insist

    English

    Alternative forms

    * ensist

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hold up a claim emphatically.
    • (I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To demand continually that something happen or be done.
  • To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
  • * 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis
    • Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.

    Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs