• adamant •
Pronunciation: æ-dê-mênt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective & Noun
Meaning: 1. [Adjective] Unyielding, stubborn, unbreakable. 2. [Noun] An extremely hard stone or other substance.
Notes: Today's word has the obvious adverb, adamantly, and a noun adamancy. Adamantive means the same thing as adamant though it comes to its sense via "like an adamant (the noun)". Remember that it ends on ANT and you should have no spelling or pronunciation problems.
In Play: Adamancy is the ultimate stubbornness: "Polly Graf was adamant in her denial that she even touched the ice cream carton in the freezer." You are adamant only if there is no possibility whatsoever that you will change your mind: "Friedrich adamantly insisted that we all finish our vegetables before dessert would be served."
Word History: In Middle English today's word referred to a hard precious stone, usually a diamond. The word comes from Latin adamas, adamant-. This word was transliterated letter for letter from Greek, where it originally meant "invincible, unconquerable" from a- "not" + dama- "to tame". Later it came to mean "hard steel or stone" and, finally, "diamond". In fact, our word diamond came from the same source via Old French diamant after the D switched places with the initial A (metathesis) and the first A became I. (We are adamantly offer our gratitude to Chris Stewart today for sending us this fascinating word all the way from South Africa.)
mark huh? Bailey
adamant
Re: adamant
Wonderful word! From hard stone to hard head...makes sense.Adamancy is the ultimate stubbornness... You are adamant only if there is no possibility whatsoever that you will change your mind...
Dr. Goodword, are we going incognito today?
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 1464
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
- Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
thanks.“ADAMANT, n. A mineral frequently found beneath a corset. Soluble in solicitate of gold.”
—Ambrose Bierce, Devil's Dictionary
-gailr
Great pic, Bailey! Is this from your "Ant Fest" years?
erm, uh no, it's from my corset.
mark trussed-up Bailey
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
A corset will give you a wasp waist which may be(?) appropriate for an ant fest. But I am adamant in recommending against it, as it will ruin the line of your avatar's fetching garb.thanks.Great pic, Bailey! Is this from your "Ant Fest" years?
erm, uh no, it's from my corset.
mark trussed-up Bailey
-gailr
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- Lexiterian
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SciFi & Geek Culture
There are a number for references to Adamantite in science fiction literature, scifi movies, Dungeons-&-Dragons, and Tolkien. It would refer to alloys that were made out of said mineral, and it's typically described as rare and beautiful. Since geeks into sci-fi, D&D, & Tolkien rarely see a corset you can understand why?
Eric
Eric
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
Re: SciFi & Geek Culture
maybe it looks like red kryptonite?Since geeks into sci-fi, D&D, & Tolkien rarely see a corset you can understand why?
Eric
mark likes-scifi-but-is-also-a-realist Bailey
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
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