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adamance

 - 2 dictionary results

ad⋅a⋅mant

  [ad-uh-muhnt, -mant]
Use adamance in a Sentence
–adjective
1. utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc.
2. too hard to cut, break, or pierce.
–noun
3. any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance.
4. a legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME < OF adamaunt < L adamant- (s. of adamas) hard metal (perh. steel), diamond < Gk, equiv. to a- a- 6 + -damant- verbal adj. of damân to tame, conquer; r. OE athamans (< ML) and ME aymont < MF aimant < VL *adimant- < L

Related forms:
ad⋅a⋅man⋅cy  [ad-uh-muhn-see] , ad⋅a⋅mance, noun
ad⋅a⋅mant⋅ly, adverb

Synonyms:
1. inflexible, rigid, uncompromising.

Antonyms:
1. flexible, easygoing, yielding.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

adamant  (adj.)
1387, "hard, unbreakable," from earlier noun (O.E. aðamans) meaning "a very hard stone," from L. adamantem (nom. adamas), from Gk. adamas (gen. adamantos) "unbreakable," the name of a hypothetical hardest material, perhaps lit. "invincible," from a- "not" + daman "to conquer, to tame" (see tame), or else a word of foreign origin altered to conform to Gk. Applied in antiquity to white sapphire, magnet, steel, emery stone, and especially diamond (see diamond). Fig. sense of "unshakeable" first recorded 1677. Adamantine (adj.) first recorded 1382.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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