truculent
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)
- Cruel or savage.
- 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:
- She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service.
- 1914 June, James Joyce, “The Sisters”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
- His face was very truculent, grey and massive, with black cavernous nostrils and circled by a scanty white fur.
- Defiant or uncompromising.
- Synonyms: inflexible, stubborn, unyielding
- 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 102:
- In her turn, Helen Burns asked me to explain, and I proceeded forthwith to pour out, in my own way, the tale of my sufferings and resentments. Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt, without reserve or softening.
- 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan[1], A. C. McClurg, →OCLC:
- Rokoff assumed a truculent air, attempting by bravado to show how little he feared Tarzan’s threats.
- Eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict.
- Synonym: belligerent
- 1877, David Magarshack, chapter 12, in Anna Karenina, part 6, translation of original by Leo Tolstoy:
- She might pity herself, but he must not pity her. She did not want any quarrel; she blamed him for wanting one, but she could not help assuming a truculent attitude.
- 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Beasts of Tarzan, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published March 1916, →OCLC:
- If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former would bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously, and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warning if Tarzan approached while the former was eating.
- 1992, Joel Feinberg, “The Social Importance of Moral Rights”, in Philosophical Perspectives[2], Ethics, page 195:
- It is an important source of the value of moral rights then that — speaking very generally — they dispose people with opposed interests to be reasonable rather than arrogant and truculent.
- 2013 February 11, Phil Bronstein, quoting SEAL Team Six Member, “The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed”, in Esquire Magazine[3]:
- These bitches is getting truculent.
- (of speech or writing) Violent; rude; scathing; savage; harsh.
- 1872, John Morley, Voltaire:
- Voltaire is never either gross or truculent.
- 1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 10, in The Wheels of Chance: A Holiday Adventure, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co.; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co., →OCLC:
- […] or again, the first whispering of love, dainty and witty and tender, to the girl he served a few days ago with sateen, or a gallant rescue of generalised beauty in distress from truculent insult or ravening dog.
- 1922, Rafael Sabatini, chapter XVI, in Captain Blood:
- Cahusac appeared to be having it all his own way, and he raised his harsh, querulous voice so that all might hear his truculent denunciation.
- (obsolete, rare, of a disease) Destructive; deadly.
- 1665, Gideon Harvey, A Discourse of the Plague … with several waies for purifying the air in houses, streets:
- More or less truculent Plagues.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
cruel or savage
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defiant or uncompromising
|
eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict
|
deadly or destructive
|
See also[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
truculent (feminine truculente, masculine plural truculents, feminine plural truculentes)
- violent or belligerent in a colorful, over-the-top or memorable fashion
- picturesque, colourful
Related terms[edit]
- truculence (noun)
Verb[edit]
truculent
Further reading[edit]
- “truculent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Romanian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from French truculent, from Latin truculentus.
Adjective[edit]
truculent m or n (feminine singular truculentă, masculine plural truculenți, feminine and neuter plural truculente)
Declension[edit]
Declension of truculent
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | truculent | truculentă | truculenți | truculente | ||
| definite | truculentul | truculenta | truculenții | truculentele | |||
| genitive/ dative |
indefinite | truculent | truculente | truculenți | truculente | ||
| definite | truculentului | truculentei | truculenților | truculentelor | |||
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *twerḱ-
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English terms with rare senses
- en:Personality
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 3-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- French non-lemma forms
- French verb forms
- Romanian terms borrowed from French
- Romanian terms derived from French
- Romanian terms derived from Latin
- Romanian lemmas
- Romanian adjectives