pertinacity
Americannoun
Synonym Usage
See perseverance.
Etymology
Origin of pertinacity
First recorded in 1495–1505; from Late Latin pertinācitās, for Latin pertinācia “stubbornness, perseverance” (from obsolete pertinacy ), equivalent to pertināci- (stem of pertināx ) “steadfast, stubborn” + -tās noun suffix ( see -ty 2). See per-, tenacity
Explanation
Pertinacity is a quality of sticking with something, no matter what. It's a type of persistent determination. People who have pertinacity won't give up, and they stick with things doggedly. Pursuing a difficult career requires pertinacity. Pertinacity is a mix of courage, conviction, and a little stubbornness. Pertinacity requires a strong will and self-confidence. Pertinacity can also be called perseverance, persistence, and tenaciousness. Pertinacity is related to the word tenacity, which is also a quality that combines determination and commitment.
Vocabulary lists containing pertinacity
Frankenstein
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The Call of the Wild
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"The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In many ways, he was like a north star, his effervescent personality and endearing pertinacity emitting a guiding light through the sport’s most transitional times.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 4, 2021
Any avant-gardist of this pertinacity should continue to provoke debate.
From New York Times • Mar. 20, 2017
Barnes’s Shostakovich is less emotionally violent, more lightly sarcastic: “Being a coward required pertinacity, persistence, a refusal to change—which made it, in a way, a kind of courage.”
From The New Yorker • May 26, 2016
It is only the pertinacity of the mind/body dichotomy that sustains the notion that a sufficient biological account of the brain would be reductionist in the negative sense.
From The Guardian • Jun. 4, 2010
“Negro” families of relative position and privilege, as mine was, inculcated the values of education, citizenship, and, as one said back then, breeding with a pertinacity that was as anxious as it was authentic.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
