maverick

English

Etymology

From the surname of Texas lawyer Samuel Maverick, who refused to brand his cattle. The surname Maverick is of Welsh origin, from Welsh mawr-rwyce, meaning "valiant hero". An alternative etymology proposes the Hebrew word מבריק (maḇərīq) "shiny, brilliant" as origin.

Pronunciation

• enPR: măvʹər-ĭk, IPA: /ˈmævəɹɪk/, X-SAMPA: /"m{v@rIk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

maverick (comparative more maverick, superlative most maverick)

1. Showing independence in thoughts or actions.

   He made a maverick decision.

   He is a maverick person.

Translations

showing independence

• Catalan: individualista m and f
• Dutch: eigenwijs (nl)
• Estonian: isemõtleja, individualist
• Finnish: itsenäinen (fi), riippumaton (fi)
• French: individualiste (fr) m and f
• German: individualistisch (de)
• Hindi: gair paaramparik (hi) (गैर पारंपरिक) m
• Hungarian: független (hu), individualista (hu)
• Italian: individualista (it) m and f

• Macedonian: индивидуалист
• Portuguese: independente (pt), rebelde (pt)
• Romanian: individualist (ro)
• Russian: индивидуалист (ru) (individualíst) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: својѐглав (sh) m

  Roman: svojèglav (sh) m

• Spanish: rebelde (es) m and f, disidente (es) m and f
• Turkish: bireyselci

Noun

maverick (plural mavericks)

1. An unbranded range animal.
   • Around 1900, O Henry, A Call Loan

     Long Bill was a graduate of the camp and trail. Luck and thrift, a cool head, and a telescopic eye for mavericks had raised him from cowboy to be a cowman.

2. One who does not abide by rules.
3. One who creates or uses unconventional and/or controversial ideas or practices.

   Florence Nightingale would have been perceived as a maverick during her early career, because she was prioritizing hygiene when everybody else involved in healthcare was focused on other things, such as surgery and pills. (Source: Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh, Trick or Treatment, 2008, p. 36-37.)

4. (poker slang) A queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em

Synonyms

• (one who does not abide by rules): individualist, lone gunman, nonconformist, rebel

Translations

unbranded range animal

• Estonian: isemõtleja individualist
• Finnish: merkitsemätön eläin

• Italian: brado (it) m
• Spanish: cimarrón (es)

one who does not abide by rules

• Dutch: individualist (nl) c, nonconformist (nl) m
• French: anticonformiste (fr), excentrique (fr), non-conformiste (fr) m and f
• German: Querkopf (de) m, Individualist (de) m

• Polish: indywidualista (pl) m, wolny duch (pl)
• Portuguese: inconformista (pt) m and f, excêntrico (pt) m, excêntrica (pt) f, dissidente (pt) m and f

one who creates or uses unconventional and/or controversial ideas or practices

• French: dissident (fr) m, franc-tireur (fr) m

poker slang: queen and a jack as a starting hand in Texas hold ’em

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: indipendente, anticonformista, dissidente, battitore libero

See also

• heteroclite

References

• Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523