pertinacity means the state or characteristic of being pertinacious. It carries an Arena rating of 1681, earned across 32 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, pertinacity ranks #1,582 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #1,696 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #4,176 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #6,060 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
Why “pertinacity” is a great word
PERTINACITY — [Noun] The quality of holding firmly to an opinion, purpose, or course of action despite difficulty or opposition; stubborn persistence. From Middle French pertinacité, from Old French pertinace ("obstinate, stubborn"), from Latin pertināx, pertinācis ("tenacious, persistent"), from per- ("thoroughly") + tenāx ("holding fast"). Unlike obstinacy, which clings with a perverse disregard for reason, or perseverance, which advances with a halo of virtue, pertinacity is the neutral, tensile engine of the will. It is the root growing through granite, the scholar's forty-year obsession with an arcane text, and the steady drip that bores a hole in stone—the stark, amoral architecture of a will that becomes indistinguishable from its object, for better or for worse.
Etymology
From Middle French pertinacité, from Old French pertinace (“obstinate, stubborn”).
noun
- The state or characteristic of being pertinacious.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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