stubborn English · revision 39726

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|attested=c1386, Chaucer, Wife of Bath's Prologue}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * UK: /ˈstʌbən/^(Wiktionary)

+ * US: /ˈstʌbɚn/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|stibourne]], later [[m|enm|stoburne]] and [[m|enm|stuborn]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MWU 2024) a word of uncertain or unknown origin.^(OED 2026)^(Hoad 1986)^(ODE 2010)^(SOED 2002) The derivation usually suggested is from [[m|enm|stubbe|t=stump]], the source of [[stub]], as if "immovable as a stump";^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) the OED and Barnhart find this easy to accept for the sense but hard to justify for the form,^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988) and the OED rejects a proposed Old English form with the suffix “-or”, since that suffix was no longer a living suffix.^(OED 2026) Klein and Weekley accept the link with ''stub'', comparing [[de|störrig|t=stubborn]], from [[m|de|Storren|t=tree stump]].^(Klein 1966)^(Weekley 1921) According to Liberman, the association with ''stub'' is folk etymology: the only certain cognate is [[is|tybbinn|t=obstinate]], which shares the root with ''s''-mobile and perhaps originally meant "swollen", while the English ending “-orn” remains unexplained.^(Liberman 2008) Etymonline notes that the OED and Liberman both doubt the connection with ''stub''.^(Etymonline) Older guesses included Minsheu's “stout-born” and a derivation from “stub-horn”, which Johnson (1755) mentions.^(Liberman 2008)^(Johnson 1755)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Unyielding and obstinate: about 1386, in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue, where Dame Alice describes herself in youth as "stibourne and strong and ioly as a pye".^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) A man named Simon Stubourne appears in a Bedfordshire subsidy roll of 1332.^(Etymonline) According to the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English, the earliest sense was "untameable, implacable",^(SOED 2002)^(ODE 2010) and Weekley notes that the original sense was often stronger, such as "ruthless".^(Weekley 1921)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense of things that resist treatment or are hard to manage, such as diseases, is recorded from about 1518,^(OED 2026)^(Etymonline) and "hard, stiff, rigid", of material things, from 1577; this is now used only of wood or stone.^(OED 2026) Johnson (1755) defined the word as obstinate, inflexible and contumacious, and noted that no obvious etymology appeared.^(Johnson 1755) The saying ''facts are stubborn things'' is found in that exact form in 1717, after similar phrases in 1707 and 1711.^(Etymonline)^(Weekley 1921) Keats used ''stubborn'' as a verb, to harden, in ''Hyperion'' (1820).^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024) In West Yorkshire dialect the adjective could describe stiff, bristly hair, and in Surrey a bushy plant.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1332 – the surname Stubourne.^(Etymonline)

+ * c. 1386 – ''stibourne'', obstinate (Chaucer).^(OED 2026)^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 1449 – the spellings ''styborne'', ''stuborn''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * ?1518 – of things: hard to treat or manage.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1577 – hard, stiff.^(OED 2026)

+ * 1717 – ''facts are stubborn things''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1820 – verb: to make stubborn (Keats).^(OED 2026)^(MWU 2024)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Unwilling to change one's mind or to give way; [[obstinate]]: ''The stubborn child refused to put on her coat.''^(Collins 2023)^(MWU 2024)

+ # Showing determination; [[persistent]] and [[dogged]]: ''The defenders put up a stubborn resistance.''^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)

+ # Hard to deal with, remove or cure: ''a stubborn stain''.^(Collins 2023)^(OED 2026)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[stubbornly]]

+ * [[stubbornness]]

+ * [[unstubborn]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[stub]]

+ * [[obstinate]]

+ * [[headstrong]]

+ * [[mulish]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Dictionary.com distinguishes ''stubborn'' (an inborn resistance to persuasion), ''obstinate'' (persistent, often unreasonable adherence to one's own course) and ''dogged'' (tenacity in keeping on despite difficulties).^(Dictionary.com 2016)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}