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:

     […] 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, 62 e)

Translations

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

• Arabic: مُتَعَنِّت (mutaʕannit), عَنِيد (ʕanīd)
• Asturian: neciu (ast)
• Azerbaijani: inadkar (az), inad (az)
• Belarusian: упа́рты (upárty)
• Breton: pennek (br)
• Bulgarian: упори́т (bg) (uporít), твърдогла́в (bg) (tvǎrdogláv)
• Catalan: obstinat (ca), opiniós
• 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, ceanntréan, dáigh, stuacach
• Italian: ostinato (it), pertinace (it)
• Japanese: 頑固な (ja) (がんこな, ganko na)
• Kazakh: бірбеткей (bırbetkei)
• 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, 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

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

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

Adverb

obstinātē (comparative obstinātius, superlative obstinātissimē)

1. firmly, inflexibly, resolutely, obstinately

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ob.stiˈnaː.te/, [ɔps̠t̪ɪˈnäːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate 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.

Spanish

Verb

obstinate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of obstinar combined with te