Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Holding tenaciously or stubbornly to a purpose, opinion, or course of action.
  • adjective Extremely persistent or unyielding.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Unyielding; persistent; obstinate; especially, resolute, as in holding or adhering to an opinion, purpose, design, course of action, etc.
  • Synonyms Unyielding, dogged: the word is rarely used now except in condemnation. See obstinate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Holding or adhering to any opinion, purpose, or design, with obstinacy; perversely persistent; obstinate
  • adjective Resolute; persevering; constant; steady.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Holding tenaciously to an opinion or purpose.
  • adjective Stubbornly resolute or tenacious.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective stubbornly unyielding

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin pertināx, pertināc- : per-, per- + tenāx, tenacious (from tenēre, to hold; see ten- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin pertinax; per- ‘very’ + tenax ‘tenacious’.

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