Word of the Day Archive
Sunday March 12, 2000
recalcitrant \rih-KAL-sih-truhnt\
, adjective:
Stubbornly resistant to and defiant of authority or restraint.
If they lingered too long, Clarice hurried them along in the same annoyed way she rushed recalcitrant goats through the gate.
-- Kaye Gibbons, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon
Even then it took a sympathetic bankruptcy judge to convince a group of recalcitrant lenders that it was in their best interest to drop their opposition.
-- "So Far So Good", New York Times, May 18, 2009
This recalcitrant fellow was the only dissenter in an otherwise unanimous recommendation.
-- Sherwin B. Nuland, "Indoctrinology", New Republic, February 19, 2001
Recalcitrant derives from Latin recalcitrare, "to kick back," from re-, "back" + calcitrare, "to strike with the heel, to kick," from calx, calc-, "the heel."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for recalcitrant
