Canutish

English

Etymology

Canute +‎ -ish, referring to the legend of King Canute and the waves.

Adjective

Canutish (comparative more Canutish, superlative most Canutish)

1. Futilely attempting to stop the unstoppable.
   • 2004, James E. Force, Sarah Hutton, Newton and Newtonianism: New Studies, page 31:

     Whether or not the more extreme expressions of these fears are justified, gigantic commercial and cultural forces unleashed in the last decade mean that Canutish resistance to the digitisation of large swathes of academic culture is futile.

   • 2007, Keith Williams, H.G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies, page 19:

     […] the 1927 Cinematograph Films Act's Canutish attempt to stem the tide with its quota system […]

   • 2012, Max Hastings, Editor: A Memoir, page 171:

     As tensions rose between Downing Street and Bonn, and we attacked in the paper her Canutish resistance to great events which she possessed no power to influence, some Tories began openly to denounce the Telegraph's 'treachery'.

Anagrams

• Chinatsu