# truculent
## English
### Etymology

First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

### Pronunciation

* enPR: trŭkʹyə-lənt, IPA: /ˈtɹʌkjʊlənt/
* Audio (US):(file)

### Adjective

truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)
* Cruel or savage.
    Synonyms: barbarous, ferocious, fierce
    The truculent soldiers gave us a steely-eyed stare.
** 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volume (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.
** 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Sisters”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 16: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 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg, published March 1915, →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, 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:These bitches is getting truculent.(Referring to women in bin Laden’s compound.)
* (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

* truculence
* truculency
* truculently

#### Translations
### See also

* belligerent

### Anagrams

* unclutter

## French
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /tʁy.ky.lɑ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

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

* truculence (noun)

### Verb

truculent
* third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of truculer

### Further reading

* “truculent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French truculent, from Latin truculentus.

### Adjective

truculent m or n (feminine singular truculentă, masculine plural truculenți, feminine and neuter plural truculente)
* truculent