Merriam-Webster WOTD (Word of the Day) Is Pugnacious

Apr 15, 2025 12:12 PM EDT, Tue

Totally appropriate for Trump’s Apparatchik defiance of a 9-0 Supreme Court order

Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day for Apr 15 is “pugnacious”:

What It Means Someone described as pugnacious shows a readiness or desire to fight or argue.

// There’s one pugnacious member on the committee who won’t agree to anything.

See the entry >

Examples “While looking through the Perkins telescope [at Saturn] one night, a pugnacious 10-year-old commented, ‘Hey! I only see one ring. Rip off!’” — Tom Burns, The Delaware (Ohio) Gazette, 23 Oct. 2024

Did you know? Pugnacious individuals are often looking for a fight. While unpleasant, at least their fists are packing an etymological punch. Pugnacious comes from the Latin verb pugnare (meaning “to fight”), which in turn comes from the Latin word for “fist,” pugnus. Another Latin word related to pugnus is pugil, meaning “boxer.” Pugil is the source of our word pugilist, which means “fighter” and is used especially of professional boxers. Pugnare has also given us impugn (“to assail by words or arguments”), oppugn (“to fight against”), and repugnant (which is now used primarily in the sense of “exciting distaste or aversion,” but which has also meant “characterized by contradictory opposition” and “hostile”).

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