Other forms: innuendos, innuendoes
An innuendo is a sly hint at something improper. Heavy innuendo, full of innuendo, a stream of innuendo.
It works by letting the listener do the improper part, which is why the speaker can always deny it, and that deniability is the whole point. British comedy built decades of material on it. The Latin means by nodding, which is exactly right.
1nouninnuendoA sly hint at something improper.
“The comedian's act was full of innuendo that went over the children's heads.”
innuendo is a hint.
inNUENDo → what you inTEND but never say
You say one thing and intend another, and leave the other one hanging.
hooks ontointend
Latin innuendo means by nodding, from innuere, to nod or hint — in plus nuere, to nod.
Proto-Indo-European
*new- (nod)
Latin
innuendō — by nodding
English, today
innuendo
Built from
From the Latin innuendō (“by nodding”), ablative singular form of innuendum (“a nodding”), gerund of innuō (“to give a nod”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA