Word of the Day Archive
Saturday May 25, 2002
pugnacious \puhg-NAY-shuhs\ , adjective:
Inclined to fight; combative; quarrelsome.
Roberto's pugnacious grandmother lived across the meadow and would yell threats and curses helplessly from her balcony.
-- Tag Gallagher, The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini
The idea that he was truculent or pugnacious, that he went about with a chip on his shoulder, that he loved fighting for the sake of fighting, was, however, a mistake.
-- William Roscoe Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography
Pugnacious comes from Latin pugnare, "to fight," from pugnus, "fist."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for pugnacious
