obdurate

English

WOTD – 27 August 2007

Etymology 1

First attested in the 1450's, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English obdurat(e), borrowed from Latin obdūrātus (“hardened”), perfect passive participle of obdūrō (“to harden”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ob- (“against”) + dūrō (“to harden, render hard”), from dūrus (“hard”). Compare durable, endure.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒbdʒʊɹɪt/, /ˈɒbdjʊɹɪt/, /ˈɒbdʒəɹɪt/, /-ət/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑbd(j)ʊɹɪt/, /ˈɑbd(j)əɹɪt/, /-ət/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Sometimes accented on the second syllable, especially by the older poets.

Adjective

obdurate (comparative more obdurate, superlative most obdurate)

1. Stubbornly persistent, generally in wrongdoing; refusing to reform or repent.

   Synonyms: hardened, hard-hearted, impertinent, intractable, unrepentant, unyielding, recalcitrant, headstrong, (obsolete) obdure

   • [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     […] sometimes the very custom of evil making the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary […]

   • 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 34], lines [199–200]:

     Art thou obdurate, flintie, hard as ſteele? / Nay more then flint, for ſtone at raine relenteth: […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 56–58:

     […] round he throws his baleful eyes
     That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
     Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:

   • 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Revolt of Islam; […], London: […] [F]or C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […]; by B[uchanan] M‘Millan, […], →OCLC, stanza 9:

     But custom maketh blind and obdurate
     The loftiest hearts.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 220:

     Late the next afternoon Tarzan and his Waziri returned with the first load of “belongings,” and when the party saw the ancient ingots of virgin gold they swarmed upon the ape-man with a thousand questions; but he was smilingly obdurate to their appeals—he declined to give them the slightest clew as to the source of his immense treasure.

   • 2011 February 12, Les Roopanarine, “Birmingham 1 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC‎^[1]:

     An injury-time goal from Nikola Zigic against an obdurate Stoke side gave Birmingham back-to back Premier League wins for the first time in 14 months.

   • 2017 September 7, Ferdinand Mount, “Umbrageousness”, in London Review of Books‎^[2]:

     What Tharoor dismisses as mere ‘positive by-products’ Lalvani sees as central to the India the British left behind: the botanic gardens, the forest conservancies, the Archaeological Survey of India (brainchild of the otherwise obdurate Curzon) and the free press.

2. (obsolete) Physically hardened, toughened.
   • 2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 827:

     The past is obdurate for the same reason a turtle's shell is obdurate: because the living flesh inside is tender and defenseless.

3. Hardened against feeling; hard-hearted.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 13, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     I fear the gentleman to whom Miss Amelia's letters were addressed was rather an obdurate critic.

Derived terms

• obduracy
• obdurately
• obdurateness
• unobdurate

Related terms

• durable
• duration
• during
• endurance
• endure
• enduring

Translations

Stubbornly persistent, generally in wrongdoing; refusing to reform or repent

• Breton: pennek (br)
• Bulgarian: закоравял (bg) (zakoravjal)
• Danish: hårdnakket
• Dutch: koppig (nl), weerbarstig (nl), hardleers (nl), onverzettelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: obstina (eo)
• Finnish: itsepintainen (fi)
• French: opiniâtre (fr) m or f, têtu (fr) m
• German: stur (de), hartnäckig (de)
• Greek: άκαμπτος (el) m (ákamptos), πωρωμένος (el) m (poroménos), σκληρόκαρδος (el) m (sklirókardos)
• Hungarian: megrögzött (hu), megátalkodott (hu)
• Irish: aindiúideach, dáigh, dígeanta, ceanndána, dolúbtha, righin, docht
• Māori: hōkeke, taringa pākura, houkeke, kakī mārō, upoko mārō, taumārō
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hardnakket

• Plautdietsch: baulstierich
• Russian: упря́мый (ru) (uprjámyj), закосне́лый (ru) (zakosnélyj)
• Spanish: obduro, obdurado
• Swedish: hårdnackat (sv)

Physically hardened, toughened

• Bulgarian: закален (bg) (zakalen)
• Dutch: keihard (nl)
• Finnish: kovitettu, lujitettu
• French: dur comme un roc
• German: hart (de)
• Russian: закалённый (ru) (zakaljónnyj)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin obdūrātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more

Verb

obdurate (third-person singular simple present obdurates, present participle obdurating, simple past and past participle obdurated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To harden; to obdure. [c. 1540-1860]

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Anagrams

• taboured

Latin

Verb

obdūrāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of obdūrō