obdurate
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɒbdʒʊɹɪt/
ipa: /ˈɒbdjʊɹɪt/
ipa: /ˈɒbdʒəɹɪt/
ipa: /-ət/
ipa: /ˈɑbd(j)ʊɹɪt/
ipa: /ˈɑbd(j)əɹɪt/
ipa: /-ət/
Forms: form: more obdurate
form: most obdurate
Etymology: First attested in the 1450's, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English obdurat(e), borrowed from Latin obdūrātus (“hardened”), perfect passive participle of obdūrō (“to harden”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from ob- (“against”) + dūrō (“to harden, render hard”), from dūrus (“hard”). Compare durable, endure.
Senses: examples: text: […] sometimes the very custom of evil making the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary […]
ref: 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
text: Art thou obdurate, flintie, hard as ſteele? / Nay more then flint, for ſtone at raine relenteth: […]
ref: 1594, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, 2nd edition, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, [verse 34], lines [199–200]:
text: […] round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness'd huge affliction and dismay
Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 56–58:
text: But custom maketh blind and obdurate
The loftiest hearts.
ref: 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “(please specify the page)”, in The Revolt of Islam; […], London: […] [F]or C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier, […]; by B[uchanan] M‘Millan, […], →OCLC, stanza 9:
text: Late the next afternoon Tarzan and his Waziri returned with the first load of “belongings,” and when the party saw the ancient ingots of virgin gold they swarmed upon the ape-man with a thousand questions; but he was smilingly obdurate to their appeals—he declined to give them the slightest clew as to the source of his immense treasure.
ref: 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 220:
text: An injury-time goal from Nikola Zigic against an obdurate Stoke side gave Birmingham back-to back Premier League wins for the first time in 14 months.
ref: 2011 February 12, Les Roopanarine, “Birmingham 1 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC:
text: What Tharoor dismisses as mere ‘positive by-products’ Lalvani sees as central to the India the British left behind: the botanic gardens, the forest conservancies, the Archaeological Survey of India (brainchild of the otherwise obdurate Curzon) and the free press.
ref: 2017 September 7, Ferdinand Mount, “Umbrageousness”, in London Review of Books:
synonyms: hardened
hard-hearted
impertinent
intractable
unrepentant
unyielding
recalcitrant
headstrong
obdure
glosses: Stubbornly persistent, generally in wrongdoing; refusing to reform or repent.
examples: text: The past is obdurate for the same reason a turtle's shell is obdurate: because the living flesh inside is tender and defenseless.
ref: 2011, Stephen King, 11/22/63, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, page 827:
glosses: Physically hardened, toughened.
examples: text: I fear the gentleman to whom Miss Amelia's letters were addressed was rather an obdurate critic.
ref: 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 13, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
glosses: Hardened against feeling; hard-hearted.
Derived terms: obduracy
obdurately
obdurateness
unobdurate
Related terms: durable
duration
during
endurance
endure
enduring