Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
adjective
- without distinctive, interesting, or stimulating qualities; vapid: an insipid personality.
- without sufficient taste to be pleasing, as food or drink; bland: a rather insipid soup.
adjective
- lacking spirit; boring
- lacking taste; unpalatable
1610s, “without taste or perceptible flavor,” from French insipide (16c.), from Late Latin inspidus “tasteless,” from Latin in- “not” (see in- (1)) + sapidus “tasty,” from sapere “have a taste” (also “be wise;” see sapient). Figurative meaning “uninteresting, dull” first recorded 1640s, but it was also a secondary sense in Medieval Latin.
In ye coach … went Mrs. Barlow, the King’s mistress and mother to ye Duke of Monmouth, a browne, beautifull, bold, but insipid creature. [John Evelyn, diary, Aug. 18, 1649]
Related: Insipidly.