doughty
pronunciation
How to pronounce doughty in British English:
UK [ˈdaʊti]
How to pronounce doughty in American English:
US [ˈdaʊti]
-
- Adjective:
- resolute and without fear
Word Origin
- doughty
- doughty: [11] Doughty originally had the rather general sense ‘worthy, virtuous’ – ‘brave’ is a secondary specialization. It comes from late Old English dohtig, an unexplained variant of an earlier Old English dyhtig, which appears to have derived ultimately from a prehistoric Germanic *duhtiz ‘ability, capacity’. This in turn came from a verb *dugan ‘be able or strong’, which itself came into Old English and survived dialectally until the 19th century as dow ‘be able to do something’ or ‘thrive’.
- doughty (adj.)
- Old English dohtig "competent, good, valiant," from dyhtig "strong," related to dugan "to be fit, be able, be strong," and influenced by its past participle, dohte. All from Proto-Germanic *duhtiz- (cognates: Middle High German tühtec, German tüchtig, Middle Dutch duchtich), from PIE *dheugh- "to be fit, be of use, proper" (cognates: German Tugend "virtue," Greek teukhein "to make ready," Irish dual "becoming, fit," Russian dužij "strong, robust"). Rare after 17c.; in deliberately archaic or mock-heroic use since c. 1800. If it had survived, its modern form would be dighty.
Example
- 1. As a jewish teenager he was a doughty street-fighter in the london slums , where adherents of pre-war fascism were once again marching , chanting " get rid of the yids " .
- 2. The doughty government investment corporation of singapore is not often a hotbed of heretical thought .
- 3. Some american friends of israel argue gamely that israel is a strategic asset to the superpower , a doughty democracy that provides intelligence , high technology , storage for american weapons and so forth .
- 4. A doughty lover of liberty , who believed government , should be small , laws unobtrusive , and men left alone to take responsibility for their own lives and their own decisions .
- 5. This spring , mervyn king , the doughty governor of the bank of england , has good reason to think about the birds and bees alongside other matters linked to zoology , epidemiology or ecology .