obstinate

English

WOTD – 29 August 2008

Alternative forms

• obstinant (proscribed)

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English obstinate, obstinat, from Latin obstinātus, past participle of obstinō (“set one's mind firmly upon, resolve”), from ob (“before”) + *stinare, from stare (“to stand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɒb.stɪ.nət/, /ˈɒb.stɪ.nɪt/
• enPR: äb'stənət, IPA^(key): /ˈɑb.stə.nət/, /ˈɑb.stə.nɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation (US): ob‧sti‧nate

Adjective

obstinate (comparative more obstinate, superlative most obstinate)

1. Stubbornly adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course, usually with implied unreasonableness; persistent.
   • 1686, Montaigne, translated by Charles Cotton, "That men are justly punished for being obstinate in the defence of a fort that is not in reason to be defended",

     From this consideration it is that we have derived the custom, in times of war, to punish […] those who are obstinate to defend a place that by the rules of war is not tenable […]

   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 21:

     […] the junior Osborne was quite as obstinate as the senior: when he wanted a thing, quite as firm in his resolution to get it; and quite as violent when angered, as his father in his most stern moments

2. Said of inanimate things not easily subdued or removed.
   • 1927, Gandhi, translated by Mahadev Desai, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part IV, Chapter XXIX,

     Now it happened that Kasturbai […] had again begun getting haemorrhage, and the malady seemed to be obstinate.

Synonyms

• (stubbornly adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course): bloody-minded, persistent, stubborn, pertinacious
• (not easily subdued): persistent, unrelenting, inexorable
• See also Thesaurus:obstinate

Derived terms

• obstinacy
• obstinately
• obstinateness

Translations

adhering to an opinion, purpose, or course, usually unreasonably

• Arabic: مُتَعَنِّت (mutaʕannit)
• Asturian: neciu (ast)
• Catalan: obstinat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 頑固／顽固 (zh) (wángù), 顽固 (zh) (wángù)

• Crimean Tatar: eriş, ilez
• Czech: tvrdohlavý (cs)
• Danish: obstinat, hårdnakket
• Dutch: obstinaat (nl), koppig (nl), hardnekkig (nl)
• Finnish: jääräpäinen (fi), jästipäinen (colloquial)
• French: obstiné (fr)
• Galician: obstinado m, teimudo (gl) m
• German: hartnäckig (de), starrköpfig
• Hebrew: עקשן (he)
• Hungarian: csökönyös (hu), konok (hu), makacs (hu), önfejű (hu), hajthatatlan (hu)
• Irish: cruamhuineálach
• Italian: ostinato (it), pertinace (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 頑固 (ja) (がんこ, ganko)
• Latin: pervicāx, obnixus, obstinātus
• Macedonian: тврдоглав m (tvrdoglav), своеглав m (svoeglav), упорен m (uporen), инаетлив m (inaetliv)
• Maori: whakatuturi, whātuturi, makiki, whakatōkeke, pake, mōtohe, kōioio, hōkeke, whakatohe, houkeke, kōioio
• Norman: entrîn
• Portuguese: obstinado (pt), persistente (pt), pertinaz (pt)
• Romanian: obstinat (ro), încăpățânat (ro)
• Russian: упря́мый (ru) (uprjámyj), стропти́вый (ru) (stroptívyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: rag-mhuinealach, rag
• Serbo-Croatian: tvrdoglav (sh), uporan (sh)
• Spanish: obstinado (es), obcecado (es), porfiado (es)
• Swedish: obstinat (sv)
• Telugu: మొండి (te) (moṇḍi)
• Turkish: inatçı (tr)
• Vietnamese: bướng bỉnh (vi), cứng đầu (vi)

(of inanimate things) not easily subdued or removed

• Finnish: sitkeä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: makacs (hu)
• Romanian: persistent (ro)

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• obestatin, obtainest

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Latin

Participle

(deprecated template usage) obstināte

1. vocative masculine singular of obstinātus

References

• “obstinate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “obstinate”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• obstinate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.