Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday October 25, 2000
pertinacious \puhr-tin-AY-shuhs\ , adjective:
1. Holding or adhering obstinately to any opinion, purpose, or design.
2. Stubbornly or perversely persistent.
When he made up his little [mind] to have or to do anything, all the king's horses and all the king's men could not change that pertinacious little mind.
-- Louisa May Alcott, Good Wives
We were presently attacked by tens of thousands of the most bloodthirsty, pertinacious, and huge mosquitoes that I ever saw or read of.
-- H. Rider Haggard, She
The cabman replied: "If you will excuse me, your coat lapels are badly twisted downward, where they have been grasped by the pertinacious New York reporters."
-- David Walton, "Sherlock Holmes's Maker", New York Times, May 2, 1999
Pertinacious is from Latin pertinax, "having a firm hold, obstinate," from per-, "thoroughly" + tenax, "holding fast, tenacious," from tenere, "to hold."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for pertinacious
