Obstinate

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɒb.stɪ.nət/

Definitions

1. Stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or chosen course of action, despite attempts to persuade one to do so
2. Resolutely maintaining a particular opinion or behavior against persuasion, showing an unyielding nature in refusing to change, and exhibiting a steadfastness in one’s stance despite opposition
3. Unwilling to alter an opinion or course of action despite advice or argument

Etymology: The idea of stubbornness in "obstinate" is built on a metaphor of standing firmly in one's way. The Latin "obstinare" meant "to set one's mind firmly upon" or "to resolve," and it combined "ob-" ("before, against") with a root related to "stare," "to stand." To be obstinate was, in origin, to stand planted in front of something and refuse to be moved. The word reached English through Middle English, where it carried the same sense of stubborn resistance it has today. Its Latin ancestor "obstinatus" was the past participle of "obstinare," which is why the word feels like a settled, completed state of mind rather than an ongoing action. Oddly, "obstinate" has a close relative in music. "Ostinato," a repeated musical figure that persists throughout a piece, comes from the same Latin source, and the two words are doublets: separate English forms of one original. The musical sense of a pattern that refuses to stop shows the old idea of persistence still at work.

Synonyms: stubborn, unyielding, inflexible

Antonyms: compliant, yielding, flexible