different between obstreperous vs froward

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin obstreperus, first attested circa 17th c.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?st??p.??.?s/, /?b?st??p.??.?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b?st??p???s/, /??b?st??p???s/

Adjective

obstreperous (comparative more obstreperous, superlative most obstreperous)

1. Attended by, or making, a loud and tumultuous noise; boisterous.

   Synonyms: clamorous, loud, noisy, vociferous

   • 1809, Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York, ch. 7:

     [O]n a clear still summer evening you may hear from the battery of New York the obstreperous peals of broad-mouthed laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw.

   • 1855, Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came":

     […] my hope

     Dwindled into a ghost not fit to cope

     With that obstreperous joy success would bring

   • 1918, Henry B. Fuller, On the Stairs, ch. 3:

     He developed an obstreperous baritone […] and he made himself rather preponderant, whether he happened to know the song or not.

2. Stubbornly defiant; disobedient; resistant to authority or control, whether in a noisy manner or not.

   Synonyms: recalcitrant, uncooperative, unruly; see also Thesaurus:obstinate

   • 1827, Sir Walter Scott, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, October 1827:

     [W]e came to Whittingham. Thence to Newcastle, where an obstreperous horse retarded us for an hour at least.

   • 1903, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "A Sandshore Wooing" in Short Stories: 1902-1903:

     My dress was draggled, my hat had slipped back, and the kinks and curls of my obstreperous hair were something awful.

   • 1915, Stewart Edward White, The Gray Dawn, ch. 70:

     They reviled the committee collectively and singly; bragged that they would shoot Coleman, Truett, Durkee, and some others at sight; flourished weapons, and otherwise became so publicly and noisily obstreperous that the committee decided they needed a lesson.

   • 2015, Penny Dreadful S2E9, 3 min

     This is what your boyfriend did, honey. When he was in one of his more obstreperous moods.

Derived terms

• obstreperously
• obstreperousness
• stroppy

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English froward, fraward, equivalent to fro +? -ward. Compare Old English fromweard, framweard (“turned away, having the back turned”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f???.(w)?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f?o?.?d/

Adjective

froward (comparative more froward, superlative most froward)

1. (archaic, literary) Disobedient, contrary, unmanageable; difficult to deal with; with an evil disposition.
   • 1553 (posth.), Thomas More, A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation, Book I, Chapter 14:

     But in the meanwhile, for fear lest if he would wax never the better he would wax much the worse; and from gentle, smooth, sweet, and courteous, might wax angry, rough, froward, and sour, and thereupon be troublous and tedious to the world to make fair weather with; they give him fair words for the while and put him in good comfort, and let him for the rest take his own chance.

   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene 2,^[1]

     Her only fault,—and that is faults enough,—

     Is, that she is intolerable curst

     And shrewd and froward, so beyond all measure,

     That, were my state far worser than it is,

     I would not wed her for a mine of gold.

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Proverbs 21:8,^[2]

     The way of man is froward and strange: but as for the pure, his work is right.

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, "Of Innovation"

     All this is true, if time stood still; which contrariwise moveth so round, that a froward retention of custom, is as turbulent a thing as an innovation […]

   • 1816, George Crabb, English Synonymes Explained, London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, p. 133,^[3]

     A froward child becomes an untoward youth, who turns a deaf ear to all the admonitions of an afflicted parent.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     So I took a great dry gourd and, cutting open the head, scooped out the inside and cleaned it; after which I gathered grapes from a vine which grew hard by and squeezed them into the gourd, till it was full of the juice. Then I stopped up the mouth and set in the sun, where I left it for some days, until it became strong wine; and every day I used to drink of it, to comfort and sustain me under my fatigues with that from froward and obstinate fiend; and as often as I drank myself drunk, I forgot my troubles and took new heart.

   • 1954, J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Two Towers":

     'I owe much to Eomer,' said Theoden. 'Faithful heart may have froward tongue.'

Synonyms

• untoward

Derived terms

• enfroward

Translations

Preposition

froward

1. (obsolete) Away from.

   • Whan Sir Galahad herde hir sey so, he was adrad to be knowyn; and therewith he smote hys horse with his sporys and rode a grete pace froward them.

Anagrams

• Forward, Warford, forward