Wiktionary

truculent

English

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WOTD – 3 January 2007

Etymology

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First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

Pronunciation

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  • enPR: trŭkʹyə-lənt, IPA(key): /ˈtɹʌkjʊlənt/
  • Audio (US):(file)

Adjective

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truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)

  1. Cruel or savage.
    Synonyms: barbarous, ferocious, fierce
    The truculent soldiers gave us a steely-eyed stare.
    • 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.
    • 1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “The Sisters”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC:
      His face was very truculent, grey and massive, with black cavernous nostrils and circled by a scanty white fur.
  2. Defiant or uncompromising.
    Synonyms: inflexible, stubborn, unyielding
  3. 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[1], 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[2]:
      These bitches is getting truculent.
      (Referring to women in bin Laden’s compound.)
  4. (of speech or writing) Violent; rude; scathing; savage; harsh.
  5. (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.
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Translations

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See also

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Anagrams

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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truculent (feminine truculente, masculine plural truculents, feminine plural truculentes)

  1. violent or belligerent in a colorful, over-the-top or memorable fashion
  2. picturesque, colourful
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Verb

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truculent

  1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of truculer

Further reading

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French truculent, from Latin truculentus.

Adjective

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truculent m or n (feminine singular truculentă, masculine plural truculenți, feminine and neuter plural truculente)

  1. truculent

Declension

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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
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