adamant

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• adamaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin adamantem, accusative singular form of adamās (“hard as steel”), from Ancient Greek ἀδάμας (adamas, “invincible”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + δαμάζω (damazo, “I tame”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

adamant (comparative more adamant, superlative most adamant)

1. resistant to reason; determined; inflexible; unshakeable; unyielding

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:obstinate

Translations

resistant to reason; determined; inflexible; unshakeable; unyielding

Bulgarian: твърд (bg), неподатлив (bg), непреклонен (bg) Czech: neoblomný (cs) Finnish: peräänantamaton (fi), järkkymätön (fi) French: inflexible (fr), catégorique (fr)

German: unnachgiebig (de), unerbittlich (de), felsenfest (de) Russian: неподатливый (ru) (nepodátlivyj), непреклонный (ru) (nepreklónnyj), категоричный (ru) (kategoríčnyj), непоколебимый (ru) (nepokolebímyj), твёрдый (ru) (tv'órdyj), как креме́нь (ru) (kak kremén') (idiom) /lit: like flint/ Spanish: firme (es), categórico (es), inflexible (es), impenetrable (es)

Noun

adamant (plural adamants)

1. a rock or mineral held by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness
2. an embodiment of impregnable hardness
3. a magnet; a lodestone
   • 1594–96, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream:

     You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant:

     But yet you draw not iron, for all my heart

     Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,

     And I shall have no power to follow you.

Quotations

• 1956 — Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, p 34

  Unprotected matter, however adamant, would have been ground to dust ages ago.

Derived terms

• adamance n
• adamantane a
• adamantean a
• adamantine a
• adamantly adv

References

• adamant in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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Latin

Verb

adamant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of adamō