Saturday, August 20, 2005

Word of the Day for Saturday August 20, 2005

truculent \TRUCK-yuh-luhnt\, adjective:
1. Fierce; savage; ferocious; barbarous.
2. Cruel; destructive; ruthless.

I ask whether impeachment will become still another arrow
in the quiver of the warrior class of ever more truculent
partisan politicians in Washington.
--"Former Watergate Prosecutors See Censure as Alternative
in Clinton's Case," [1]New York Times, December 9, 1998

...officers mistook his father's cursing and argumentative
reception of five men with guns for the actions of a
truculent fugitive.
--Frank J. Murray, "Media can't join police raids of homes,
high court decides," [2]Washington Times, May 25, 1999

Those bamboozled into believing palpable untruths that are
recognized as such by the larger community are likely in
time to develop an attitude of truculent resentment and
outright paranoia rather than self-esteem.
--Thomas M. Disch, [3]The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How
Science Fiction Conquered the World
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Truculent derives from Latin truculentus, from trux, truc-,
rough, savage, fierce.

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