obdurate

UK/ˈɒbdʒʊɹɪt/US/ˈɑbd(j)ʊɹɪt/

adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,789 of 15,258neutral

Obdurate means stubbornly refusing to be moved or softened. Remain obdurate, an obdurate refusal, obdurate in the face of pleading.

It is stronger than stubborn because it implies a hardness against appeals to feeling. The Latin is hardened, and the word keeps that physical picture.

Definitions of obdurate

1adjectiveobdurateStubbornly refusing to be moved or softened.C2
“The committee remained obdurate despite a room full of objections.”

obdurate is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin obduratus is the past participle of obdurare, to harden, from ob plus durus, hard.

Latin
obdūrātus — hardened
Middle English
obdurat
English, today
obdurate

Built from

obdūrō · Latin — to harden
ob- · Latin — against
dūrō · Latin — to harden, render hard
dūrus · Latin — hard

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

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary