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English: Obdurate vs Obstinate vs Adamant | ||
Tags: Meaning of words | English | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 4027 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes  Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 1 of 6 20 February 2014 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What is the difference between these words?
The impression that I have is that they have different connotations: Obdurate: A bad quality/intention connotation Obstinate: A stupidity connotation: an obstinate person is holding on to his views even when faced with contradicting evidence. Adamant: Neutral connotation: an adamant person may or may not be right regarding the matter at hand. We only know he is being adamant. Am I mistaken? Also, what is the difference between Exigency and Emergency? Edited by Gemuse on 20 February 2014 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| osoymar Tetraglot Pro Member United States Joined 4681 days ago 190 posts - 344 votes Speaks: English*, German, Portuguese, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 6 20 February 2014 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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In the U.S., at least, obstinate is more common than obdurate, and stubborn is more
common yet. In practice I think they're used in the same way. While obdurate/obstinate/stubborn are descriptors of personality, adamant is not something you would use to describe a person's personality in general. A person can be adamant about his position or he can speak adamantly but he can not BE adamant. Exigency, again, is extremely rare in day to day English. I would guess that 98% of Americans don't even know the word passively and I can't recall the last time I heard or read it. Emergency, of course, is very common. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4478 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 6 20 February 2014 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
Obdurate: This is very low frequency, and I wouldn't worry about it. I get the impression of stubborn with a 'stony/hard/undissolvable' aspect to it. Obstinate: Stubborn - even in the face of reasonable evidence. Adamant: Certain about something, but not necessary unreasonable.
Exigency: Don't know this word - so not something I would worry about. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| michaelyus Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4510 days ago 53 posts - 87 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: Italian, French, Cantonese, Korean, Catalan, Vietnamese, Lingala, Spanish Studies: Hokkien | Message 4 of 6 21 February 2014 at 10:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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Exigency is used rather sparingly nowadays, usually in the plural. I'm not sure I'd
compare it to "emergencies": it's closer in meaning to "urgent needs" or "demands" or "requirements", and can be used of situations of many kinds, including personal, social, and national, from religious to financial. The use of the adjective "exigent" is mainly restricted to legal matters (e.g. "exigent circumstances"). Much much less common than "exigency/-ies". The other adjective "exiguous" I have to admit I'd never seen before. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4314 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 5 of 6 21 February 2014 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"Exigent" tends to be used more in discussing a political issue or in a legal matter, and it seems to occur more frequently in writing than in speech.
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7150 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 6 of 6 22 February 2014 at 10:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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"Exigencies" is used several times in the Federalist Papers.
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