altercation
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌɔːltəˈkeɪʃn̩/
ipa: /ˌɒl-/
ipa: /ˌɔltɚˈkeɪʃən/
ipa: /ˌɑltɚˈkeɪʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: altercations
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin altercātiō.
Cognates
* Catalan altercació
* Italian altercazione
* Occitan altercatio, altercassion
* Portuguese altercação
* Spanish altercación
Senses: examples: text: to get into an altercation over (something)
text: The shooting resulted from an altercation between two armed intoxicated men.
text: The truth of my Third Accuſation is confeſt, but the guilt, not acknovvledged; ſince that vvhich excites men to endleſs bavvlings, and altercations; Schiſms, Hereſies and Rebellions, by the vehemencies of Diſpute, is it ſeems vvith our Author no more noxious and criminal, then the Sun that ſtirrs men up to their vvork in the morning, by the importunity of it's beams.
ref: 1665, Joseph Glanvill, “Scire/i tuum nihil est: Or, The Authors Defence of the Vanity of Dogmatizing; against the Exceptions of the Learned Tho. Albius [i.e., Thomas White] in His Late Sciri”, in Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 74:
text: An altercation cannot end in your favour.
ref: 1753 (indicated as 1754), [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XIX. Miss Byron. In Continuation.”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison. […], volume II, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, […], →OCLC, page 138:
text: [I]n all the disputes in which he was engaged as an Englishman against Englishmen, from his boxing-matches at school to those stormy altercations at the India House and in Parliament amidst which his later years were passed, his very faults were those of a high and magnanimous spirit.
ref: 1840 January, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “[Robert] Lord Clive. […]”, in Critical and Historical Essays, Contributed to the Edinburgh Review. […], 2nd edition, volume III, London: […] Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 149:
text: "What the hell is it to you who are my friends?" roared McMurdo in a voice which brought every head in the carriage round to witness the altercation.
ref: 1914 September – 1915 May, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Man”, in The Valley of Fear: A Sherlock Holmes Novel, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 27 February 1915, →OCLC, part II (The Scowrers), page 170:
synonyms: word: argument
word: wrangle
word: argument
word: argy-bargy
word: altercation
word: barney
word: bawl out
word: blue
word: bobbery
word: brawl
word: clash
word: conflict
word: controversy
word: debate
word: difference
word: ding-dong
word: disagreement
word: discordance
word: disharmony
word: disputation
word: dispute
word: dissonance
word: disunion
word: dustup
word: face-off
word: falling out
word: feud
word: fight
word: flite
word: hassle
word: quarrel
word: quibble
word: row
word: spat
word: squabble
word: tangle
word: threap
word: tiff
word: wrangle
glosses: An angry or heated dispute.
examples: text: The vvhole of this proceſs is denominated the pleading; in the ſeveral ſtages of vvhich it muſt be carefully obſerved, not to depart or vary from the title or defence, vvhich the party has once inſiſted on. For this (vvhich is called a departure in pleading) might occaſion endleſs altercation.
ref: 1768, William Blackstone, “Of Pleading”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book III (Of Private Wrongs), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 310:
topics: law
glosses: An act of posing questions to, and obtaining answers from, a witness in a court of law.
examples: text: VVee ſeldome find one peece of Scripture ſo preciſely and plainely expounded by another, as in this Prophecie, to haue aftervvards beene the Subiect of altercation.
ref: 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “That the 70. Years of Captiuitie are to be Numbred from the Destruction of Ierusalem; not from the Migration of Iechonia”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, 1st book, §. V (Of the Three Chiefest Iupiters; and the Strange Storie of the Third), page 5:
text: The greateſt of my trouble is, that I am forced to deal vvith a vvriting vvhich is filled vvith […] ſo many angry vvords, and ſo many hiſtoricall untruths, that, as I knovv my very mentioning the later vvill be ill taken, ſo I knovv not hovv to deal vvith the former. For if I ſhould pleaſe my ſelf in overpaſſing them, I knovv ſome vvill ſay his Book is unanſvvered, vvho take the ſtrength of it to lie in ſuch vvords: And if I anſvver it, as I ſhall but vveary a Judicious Reader, vvho looks for Arguments, and loathes altercation, ſo I ſhall be forced to ſpeak according to the matter; […]
ref: 1651, Richard Baxter, “A Corrective for a Circumforaneous Antidote against the Verity of a Passage in the Epistle before My Treatise of Rest. Section I.”, in Plain Scripture Proof of Infants Church-membership and Baptism: […], London: […] Robert White; and are to be sold by Thomas Underhil, […], and Francis Tyton […], →OCLC, page 241:
text: The tvvo Chambermaids being again left along, began a ſecond Bout at Altercation, vvhich ſoon produced a Combat of a more active Kind. In this the Victory belonged to the Lady of inferior Rank, but not vvithout ſome Loſs of Blood, of Hair, and of Lavvn and Muſlin.
ref: 1749, Henry Fielding, “Containing Scenes of Altercation, of No Very Uncommon Kind”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, pages 61–62:
text: But she was here interrupted […] by her father's hat being heavily flung from his hand and striking her face. Accustomed to such occasional manifestations of his sense of parental duty, Pleasant merely wiped her face on her hair (which of course had tumbled down) before she twisted it up. This was another common procedure on the part of the ladies of the Hole, when heated by verbal or fistic altercation.
ref: 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “More Birds of Prey”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, book the second (Birds of a Feather), page 271:
glosses: Angry or heated disputation.
Related terms: altercate
altercative
altercator