truculent
English edit
Etymology edit
First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)
- Cruel or savage.
- 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:
- She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service.
- 1914 June, James Joyce, “The Sisters”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
- His face was very truculent, grey and massive, with black cavernous nostrils and circled by a scanty white fur.
- Defiant or uncompromising.
- Synonyms: inflexible, stubborn, unyielding
- 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter VI, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 102:
- In her turn, Helen Burns asked me to explain, and I proceeded forthwith to pour out, in my own way, the tale of my sufferings and resentments. Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt, without reserve or softening.
- 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan[1], A. C. McClurg, →OCLC:
- Rokoff assumed a truculent air, attempting by bravado to show how little he feared Tarzan’s threats.
- Eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict.
- Synonym: belligerent
- 1877, David Magarshack, chapter 12, in Anna Karenina, part 6, translation of original by Leo Tolstoy:
- She might pity herself, but he must not pity her. She did not want any quarrel; she blamed him for wanting one, but she could not help assuming a truculent attitude.
- 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 10, in The Beasts of Tarzan, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., published March 1916, →OCLC:
- If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former would bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously, and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warning if Tarzan approached while the former was eating.
- 1992, Joel Feinberg, “The Social Importance of Moral Rights”, in Philosophical Perspectives[2], Ethics, page 195:
- It is an important source of the value of moral rights then that — speaking very generally — they dispose people with opposed interests to be reasonable rather than arrogant and truculent.
- 2013 February 11, Phil Bronstein, quoting SEAL Team Six Member, “The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden... Is Screwed”, in Esquire Magazine[3]:
- These bitches is getting truculent.
- (of speech or writing) Violent; rude; scathing; savage; harsh.
- 1872, John Morley, Voltaire:
- Voltaire is never either gross or truculent.
- 1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 10, in The Wheels of Chance: A Holiday Adventure, London: J[oseph] M[alaby] Dent and Co.; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Co., →OCLC:
- […] or again, the first whispering of love, dainty and witty and tender, to the girl he served a few days ago with sateen, or a gallant rescue of generalised beauty in distress from truculent insult or ravening dog.
- 1922, Rafael Sabatini, chapter XVI, in Captain Blood:
- Cahusac appeared to be having it all his own way, and he raised his harsh, querulous voice so that all might hear his truculent denunciation.
- (obsolete, rare, of a disease) Destructive; deadly.
- 1665, Gideon Harvey, A Discourse of the Plague … with several waies for purifying the air in houses, streets:
- More or less truculent Plagues.
Related terms edit
Translations edit
cruel or savage
|
defiant or uncompromising
|
eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict
|
deadly or destructive
|
See also edit
Anagrams edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
truculent (feminine truculente, masculine plural truculents, feminine plural truculentes)
- violent or belligerent in a colorful, over-the-top or memorable fashion
- picturesque, colourful
Related terms edit
- truculence (noun)
Verb edit
truculent
Further reading edit
- “truculent”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Romanian edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from French truculent, from Latin truculentus.
Adjective edit
truculent m or n (feminine singular truculentă, masculine plural truculenți, feminine and neuter plural truculente)
Declension edit
Declension of truculent
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
| nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | truculent | truculentă | truculenți | truculente | ||
| definite | truculentul | truculenta | truculenții | truculentele | |||
| genitive/ dative |
indefinite | truculent | truculente | truculenți | truculente | ||
| definite | truculentului | truculentei | truculenților | truculentelor | |||