cantankerous
pronunciation
How to pronounce cantankerous in British English:
UK [kænˈtæŋkərəs]
How to pronounce cantankerous in American English:
US [kænˈtæŋkərəs]
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- Adjective:
- stubbornly obstructive and unwilling to cooperate
- having a difficult and contrary disposition
Word Origin
- cantankerous
- cantankerous: [18] Cantankerous is a rather mysterious word. It first appears in the 1770s, and the earliest known reference to it is in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer 1772: ‘There’s not a more bitter cantanckerous road in all christendom’. Its origin is disputed: perhaps the likeliest source is Middle English contekour ‘brawler’, from contek ‘strife’, a borrowing from an unrecorded Anglo-Norman *contek, but an Irish origin has also been suggested, perhaps from Irish cannrán ‘strife, grumbling’ (another early user of the word was the Irish playwright Thomas Sheridan).
- cantankerous (adj.)
- 1772, said to be "a Wiltshire word," probably from an alteration (influenced by raucous) of Middle English contakour "troublemaker" (c. 1300), from Anglo-French contec "discord, strife," from Old French contechier (Old North French contekier), from con- "with" + teche, related to atachier "hold fast" (see attach). With -ous. Related: Cantankerously; cantankerousness.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Grandad never stops complaining , the cantankerous old bugger .
- 2. You grow old if you are irritable , crotchety , petulant , and cantankerous .
- 3. And on the fifth day , the cantankerous communist flew to hollywood .
- 4. They are cantankerous egotists , the kind of men who are unwelcome in the modern corporation .
- 5. Cantankerous chap roger always was .