obstreperous

English

WOTD – 18 February 2007

Etymology

First attested circa 17th century, from Latin obstreperus "clamorous, noisy," from obstrepere, "to make a noise against, oppose noisily," from ob-, "against" + strepere, "to noise."

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əbˈstrɛp.ər.əs/, /ɒbˈstrɛp.ər.əs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /əbˈstrɛpərəs/, /ɑːbˈstrɛpərəs/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

obstreperous ‎(comparative more obstreperous, superlative most obstreperous)

1. Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; boisterous.
   • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 7:

     [O]n a clear still summer evening you may hear from the battery of New York the obstreperous peals of broad-mouthed laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came":

     . . . my hope

     Dwindled into a ghost not fit to cope

     With that obstreperous joy success would bring

   • 1918, Henry B. Fuller, On the Stairs, ch. 3:

     He developed an obstreperous baritone . . . and he made himself rather preponderant, whether he happened to know the song or not.

2. Stubbornly defiant; disobedient; resistant to authority or control, whether in a noisy manner or not.
   • 1827, Sir Walter Scott, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, October 1827:

     [W]e came to Whittingham. Thence to Newcastle, where an obstreperous horse retarded us for an hour at least.

   • 1903, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "A Sandshore Wooing" in Short Stories: 1902-1903:

     My dress was draggled, my hat had slipped back, and the kinks and curls of my obstreperous hair were something awful.

   • 1915, Stewart Edward White, The Gray Dawn, ch. 70:

     They reviled the committee collectively and singly; bragged that they would shoot Coleman, Truett, Durkee, and some others at sight; flourished weapons, and otherwise became so publicly and noisily obstreperous that the committee decided they needed a lesson.

Synonyms

• (making a tumultuous noise): clamorous, loud, noisy, vociferous
• (noisily defiant): recalcitrant, uncooperative, unruly

Derived terms

• obstreperously
• obstreperousness
• stroppy

Translations

attended by, or making a loud and tumultuous noise

• Dutch: luidruchtig (nl)
• Polish: hałaśliwy (pl) m

noisily and stubbornly defiant

• Dutch: weerbarstig (nl)
• Polish: hałaśliwy (pl) m, niesforny (pl) m, zaczepny m

• Spanish: estrepitoso m
• Swedish: oregerlig