pertinacity

English

Etymology

From Middle French pertinacité, from Old French pertinace (“obstinate, stubborn”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

pertinacity (usually uncountable, plural pertinacities)

1. The state or characteristic of being pertinacious.
   • 1846, Edgar Allen Poe, The Black Cat

     With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase. It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend.

   • 1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Again and again, however, and half a dozen other agains, with the inexorable pertinacity of a child intent upon some object important to itself, did he renew his efforts for admittance.

Synonyms

• pertinaciousness, resolve, stubbornness, tenacity

Translations

state of being pertinacious

Bulgarian: упоритост (bg) f (uporitost), неотстъпчивост (bg) f (neotstǎpčivost) Catalan: pertinàcia f, pertinacitat f French: ténacité (fr) f, pertinacité (fr) Galician: teimosía (gl) f Portuguese: teimosia (pt) f, pertinácia (pt) f Russian: неусту́пчивость (ru) f (neustúpčivostʹ), упря́мство (ru) n (uprjámstvo) Ukrainian: непоступливість f (nepostuplyvistʹ), впертість f (vpertistʹ)

Anagrams

• antipyretic