obstinate

obstinate

English

WOTD – 29 August 2008

Alternative forms

• obstinant (proscribed)

Etymology

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”). Doublet of ostinato.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒb.stɪ.nət/, /ˈɒb.stɪ.nɪt/
• (US) 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 […]

   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:

     […] 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. (of inanimate things) Not easily subdued or removed.
   • 1925-29, Mahadev Desai (translator), M.K. Gandhi, 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.

3. (of a facial feature) Typical of an obstinate person; fixed and unmoving.
   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     He had the same pile of curly hair, but he was clean-shaven with a heavy, obstinate jowl.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

• obstinacy
• obstinately
• obstinateness

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *steh₂-‎ (0 c, 58 e)

Translations

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

Arabic: مُتَعَنِّت‎ (mutaʿannit), عَنِيد‎ (ʿanīd) Asturian: neciu (ast) Azerbaijani: inadkar (az), inad (az) Belarusian: упа́рты (upárty) Breton: pennek (br) Bulgarian: упори́т (bg) (uporít), твърдогла́в (bg) (tvǎrdogláv) Catalan: obstinat (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 頑固／顽固 (zh) (wángù) Crimean Tatar: eriş, ilez Czech: tvrdohlavý (cs) Danish: obstinat, hårdnakket Dutch: obstinaat (nl), koppig (nl), hardnekkig (nl) Esperanto: obstina (eo) Finnish: jääräpäinen (fi), jästipäinen (colloquial) French: obstiné (fr) Galician: obstinado m, teimudo (gl) m German: hartnäckig (de), starrköpfig (de), stur (de) Greek: Ancient: αὐθάδης (authádēs) Hebrew: עַקְשָׁן‎ (he) (akshán) Hindi: ज़िद्दी (ziddī), हठी (hi) (haṭhī), अक्खड़ (hi) (akkhaṛ) Hungarian: csökönyös (hu), konok (hu), makacs (hu), önfejű (hu), hajthatatlan (hu) Irish: cruamhuineálach Italian: ostinato (it), pertinace (it) Japanese: 頑固な (ja) (がんこな, ganko na) Korean: 완고하다 (ko) (wan'gohada) Latin: pervicāx, obnixus, obstinātus Macedonian: тврдоглав (tvrdoglav), своеглав (svoeglav), упорен (uporen), инаетлив (inaetliv) Maori: whakatuturi, whātuturi, makiki, whakatōkeke, pake, mōtohe, kōioio, hōkeke, whakatohe, houkeke, kōioio Norman: entrîn Old English: ānwille, stearcmōd, stīþmōd Persian: یک‌دنده‎ (yek-dande), سرسخت‎ (fa) (sar-saxt), لجوج‎ (fa) (lajuj) Polish: uparty (pl), zawzięty (pl) Portuguese: obstinado (pt), persistente (pt), pertinaz (pt) Romanian: obstinat (ro), încăpățânat (ro), îndărătnic (ro) Russian: упря́мый (ru) (uprjámyj), упёртый (ru) (upjórtyj) (colloquial), твердоло́бый (ru) (tverdolóbyj) (colloquial, obstinate and foolish), стропти́вый (ru) (stroptívyj) Scottish Gaelic: rag-mhuinealach, rag Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: тврдо̀глав, у̏по̄ран Roman: tvrdòglav (sh), ȕpōran (sh) Slovak: tvrdohlavý Slovene: trdovraten, trmast (sl) Spanish: obstinado (es), obcecado (es), porfiado (es) Swedish: obstinat (sv) Tajik: саркаш (sarkaš) Telugu: మొండి (te) (moṇḍi) Turkish: inatçı (tr) Ukrainian: упе́ртий (upértyj), впе́ртий m (vpértyj) Uzbek: oʻjar (uz), qaysar (uz), sarkash (uz) Vietnamese: bướng bỉnh (vi), cứng đầu (vi) Welsh: styfnig

(of inanimate things) not easily subdued or removed

Bulgarian: упори́т (bg) (uporít) Finnish: sitkeä (fi) German: widerspenstig (de), widerborstig (de), hartnäckig (de) Hungarian: makacs (hu) Polish: uporczywy (pl) Romanian: persistent (ro)

Further reading

• obstinate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• obstinate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• obstinate at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• obestatin, obtainest

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ob.stiˈnaː.teː/, [ɔps̠t̪ɪˈnäːt̪eː]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ob.stiˈna.te/, [obst̪iˈnäːt̪e]

Adverb

obstinātē (comparative obstinātius, superlative obstinātissimē)

1. firmly, inflexibly, resolutely, obstinately

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ob.stiˈnaː.te/, [ɔps̠t̪ɪˈnäːt̪ɛ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ob.stiˈna.te/, [obst̪iˈnäːt̪e]

Participle

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