affront

Affront is he dishonor and the shame resulting from a certain saying or fact. It's about a insult, a grievance, a offense, a ignominy or one insult. For example: "I cannot accept such an affront: I demand that you recant", "Mr. Cautore will have to answer before the Justice for the unjustified affronts that he pronounced", "The misuse of national symbols is an affront to the entire nation".

It is common to speak of what is called public outrage. As its name suggests, it is a personal offense that is carried out on someone in particular and that is known to everyone who belongs to that community. This population does not hesitate to condemn it.

The affront, therefore, can occur with certain statements or expressions. The concept does not have a precise definition, as it may overlap with other notions. An affront can express a truth or a lie, and can even become a crime (if it is a slander or an insult). If an intellectual comments, in the case of pedophile priests, that religious are abusers by nature, he will be committing an affront.

A soccer coach can assure that the words of a sports journalist are an affront if said reporter reports on the manager's lack of attachment to responsible work.

A action it can also become an affront. A rock singer burning the flag of a country on stage or a painter breaking an image of Jesus Christ in a press conference they will be making outrages that will generate the reaction of many people.

In addition to all this, we would have to establish that the term that concerns us becomes part of the title of one of the most important chapters of the work "El Cantar del Mío Cid", dated in the year 1200 and that recounts the adventures of the knight Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (El Cid). Specifically, it is the third chapter and is called "Song of the affront of Corpes."

The protagonists of this third song are the infants of Carrión who suffer disgrace when they make their cowardice clear, both in front of a lion and in front of the Arabs against what is being fought at that moment. For this reason they decide to take revenge and what they do is travel with their wives, the daughters of El Cid, to whip them in a certain place and leave them abandoned.

The girls' father asks the king for justice and he succeeds. They take revenge on their husbands and weddings are canceled, so shortly afterwards the women will be again engaged, in that case with the infants of Aragon and Navarra.

In ancient times, men who felt affronted used to challenge duel to his critics. It was a way of defending honor, demanding a retraction or risking life for the conflict. Swords, revolvers or pistols were some of the weapons that were used most frequently in this type of duel to the death.