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Recalcitrant, r-e-c-a-l-c-i-t-r-a-n-t, Recalcitrant
My boss, who is categorically a curmudgeon, and who never neglects an opportunity to say an ill word about anyone, not surprisingly has an arsenal of negative adjectives at his disposal for ready use. Sometime during last week, while describing two majors who have been less than stellar in their duties, he used the word recalcitrant to describe both of them,e.g., "How have our two recalcitrant majors been doing this week?" This, of course, he says with all of the over-emphasized enunciation and exaggerated syllable stresses - in other words, smugness - a word like recalcitrant necessarily brings with it. Impressed by this rather apt display of wordsmithing I've been using the word recalcitrant every chance I get, and so thought I'd share my new word with you: recalcitrant, r-e-c-a-l-c-i-t-r-a-n-t, recalcitrant.
The following definition is from dictionary.com
1. resisting authority or control; not obedient or compliant; refractory.
2. hard to deal with, manage, or operate.
5 comments:
Great word. Out of context I would have guessed it had some sort of medical or biological derivative.
Oh, I rarely use it in it's proper context. It's much more fun to use it any ol' way - like "Boy, this Dr. Pepper tastes recalcitrant." or "Honey, would you mind handing me that recalcitrant piece of pizza?"
Gen-
Rest assured I have forwarded your recalcitrant post to Dr. R.
I'm a "wanna be" recalcitrant...
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