Word of the Day

Wednesday September 30, 2009

intractable [in-TRAK-tuh-buhl]

adjective

Not easily governed, managed or directed; obstinate; stubborn; as, "an intractable child."
Not easily shaped or manipulated; as, "intractable metal."
Not easily remedied or alleviated; as, "intractable pain."

With that, Mr. Obama promised, "We are going to get this done" -- this being the health care initiative that was the centerpiece of his speech just as it is the signature issue of his new administration. There were shades of policy difference on health care in his immediate audience. But the divisions in the public outside that room have proven much more intractable.

James O'Toole, "Obama Relishes Friendly Audience", Pittsburgh Post - Gazette, Sep 16, 2009
But while building the infrastructure for charging readers is one part of the equation, the new proposals underscore what may be the more intractable issue: getting publishers to make the leap and stop giving news out for free on the Web.

Associated Press, "Tech giants offer papers revenue ideas", Boston Globe, Sep 11, 2009
His pride and pleasure in this work were very great, and well they might be, for it is a fine thing to have learned to handle so intractable a material as iron.

Herbert J. Hall The Untroubled Mind (1915)

Origin of the Word

Intractable, approximately 1545, derives from Latin intractabilis "not to be handled," from in- "not" + tractabilis.