insidious

being harmful in a secret way

TRANSLATION

heimtückisch

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

The psychologist and feminist William Moulton Marston, attacked the comic books of his day, criticizing their INSIDIOUS influence on young, impressionable minds. The American publisher M. C. Gaines, challenged Marston to create a comic of his own. The result? The "Wonder Woman" comic strip.

Marston, William Moulton - American psychologist, feminist and inventor (noted for his invention of the lie detector)

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know?

insidious

From Latin insidisus, from insidiae - ambush (überfallen); from insidere - to sit upon, lie in wait for

1. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner: insidious rumors; an insidious disease.

2. Intended to entrap; treacherous: insidious misinformation.

3. Beguiling but harmful; alluring: insidious pleasures.

Source: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition


There must be lots of insidiousness about - check out these synonyms:

artful, beguiling, corrupt, crafty, crooked, cunning, dangerous, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, delusive, designing, dishonest, disingenuous, double-dealing, duplicitous, ensharing, fallacious, false, foxy, guileful, intriguing, knavish, lying, Machiavellian, mendacious, misleading, perfidious, perilous, roguish, secret, slick, sly, smooth, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, underhanded, untrustworthy, untruthful, wily, worm

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