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Friday September 25, 2009

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obdurate [OB-duh-rit; -dyuh-]

adjective

1. Hardened in feelings or wrongdoing; hard-hearted; stubbornly wicked; unyielding.
2. Hard; harsh; rugged; rough; intractable.

• What draws these disparate people together is as much the tenor of the times as anything else, the way the prospect of revolution acted on people like a drug. The actions of an especially obdurate German government also form part of the picture, setting a match to an already combustible mixture.
  Kenneth Turan, "MOVIE REVIEW; A heavy topic, with explosions", Los Angeles Times, Aug 28, 2009
• What may -- may -- have resulted from forgivable misimpressions because of the "fog of war" long ago crystallized into obdurate lies. Cronkite never clarified the record, never admitted that the Tet Offensive -- the Viet Cong's surprise holiday attack on cities across South Vietnam -- resulted in a military and political fiasco for North Vietnam.
  Diana West, "But there's still Cronkite's offensive history", The Examiner, Jul 26, 2009
• Her daughter stooped, and kissed her. I had left the window, and was near the door, when Rachel approached it to go out. Another change had come over her--she was in tears. I looked with interest at the momentary softening of that obdurate heart.
  Wilkie Collins (1824 - 1889) An English novelist, playwright, and author. The Moonstone (1868)

Origin of the Word

Obdurate, approximately 1440, derives from Latin obduratus "hardened," past paticiple of obdurare "harden," from ob "against" + durare "harden, render hard," from durus "hard."