intransigent

English

WOTD – 19 April 2006

Alternative forms

• intransigeant

Etymology

Borrowed from French intransigeant, from Spanish intransigente, from Latin in- (“un-, not”) + trānsigēns, present participle of trānsigō (“to come to an understanding”), from trāns (“across”) +‎ agō (“to do”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɹæn.sə.d͡ʒənt/, /ɪnˈtɹæn.zə.d͡ʒənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧tran‧si‧gent

Adjective

intransigent (comparative more intransigent, superlative most intransigent)

1. Unwilling to compromise or moderate a position; unreasonable

   Don't waste your time trying to change his mind: he's completely intransigent.

   • 1966, H. Feigl, "Is Science Relevant to Theology?", in Inquiries and Provocations: Selected Writings (2012 →ISBN)

     Since I have been asked to do this in very brief compass, the harsh tone and terse style of my presentation will make my contentions appear more dogmatic and intransigent than I should wish them to be.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:obstinate

Related terms

• intransigence
• intransigency
• intransigentism
• intransigently

Translations

unwilling to compromise or moderate a position

• Bulgarian: непримирим (bg) (neprimirim), безкомпромисен (bg) (bezkompromisen)
• Catalan: intransigent (ca)
• Dutch: onverzettelijk (nl)
• Finnish: myöntymätön, jyrkkä (fi)
• French: intransigeant (fr), impitoyable (fr)
• German: kompromisslos (de), intransigent (de), unnachgiebig (de), hartleibig, unbeugsam (de), unversöhnlich (de), stur (de), unkooperativ
• Greek: αδιάλλακτος (el) (adiállaktos)
• Hebrew: בלתי מתפשר m (bilti mitpasher)
• Hungarian: hajthatatlan (hu), tántoríthatatlan (hu), intranzigens
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: þrjóskur
• Persian: معاند (fa) (mo'âned)
• Polish: nieprzejednany (pl), nieustępliwy (pl)
• Portuguese: intransigente (pt)
• Russian: непрекло́нный (ru) m (nepreklónnyj), непримири́мый (ru) m (neprimirímyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: intransigentan (sh), beskompromisan (sh)
• Swedish: omedgörlig (sv)

Noun

intransigent (plural intransigents)

1. A person who is intransigent

Further reading

• “intransigent”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “intransigent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.