different between obtund vs obdurate

English

Etymology

Latin obtundere (“to dull", "deaden", "deafen”), from ob- (see ob-) + tundere. More at obtuse.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b?t?nd/, /?b?t?nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?b?t?nd/, /?b?t?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

obtund (third-person singular simple present obtunds, present participle obtunding, simple past and past participle obtunded)

1. (transitive, chiefly medicine) To reduce the edge or effects of; to mitigate; to dull.
   • 1900, Martha M. Allen, Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine, p. 319:

     […] the use of alcoholic decoctions […] which are given as medicines to allay pain, obtund nerve sensibility, to cure the little sufferer of his vital manifestations […]

   • 2008, Jerrold H. Levy, Kenichi A. Tanaka & Eric J. Okun, "Cardial Surgical Pharmacology", in Cardiac Surgery in the Adult, ?ISBN, p. 103:

     Small doses of opioids are also useful in obtunding airway reflexes […]

Synonyms

• (dull or mitigate): blunt, deaden

Derived terms

• obtundity

Related terms

Translations

English

Etymology

Mid-15th century, from Latin obduratus (“hardened”), form of obd?r? (“harden”), from ob- (“against”) + d?r? (“harden, render hard”), from durus (“hard”). Compare durable, endure.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??bd????t/, /??bdj???t/, /??bd????t/, /-?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??bd(j)???t/, /??bd(j)???t/, /-?t/
• Sometimes accented on the second syllable, especially by the older poets.

Adjective

obdurate (comparative more obdurate, superlative most obdurate)

1. Stubbornly persistent, generally in wrongdoing; refusing to reform or repent.
   • 1593, Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I:

     ... sometimes the very custom of evil making the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary ...

   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act I, sc. 4:

     Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel,

     Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth?

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 56–8

     ... round he throws his baleful eyes

     That witness'd huge affliction and dismay

     Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:

   • 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley,"The Revolt of Islam", canto 4, stanza 9, lines 1486-7:

     But custom maketh blind and obdurate

     The loftiest hearts.
2. (obsolete) Physically hardened, toughened.
3. Hardened against feeling; hard-hearted.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 13:

     I fear the gentleman to whom Miss Amelia's letters were addressed was rather an obdurate critic.

Synonyms

• (stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing): hardened, hard-hearted, impertinent, intractable, unrepentant, unyielding, recalcitrant

Derived terms

• obduracy

Related terms

• durable, duration
• endure, endurance, enduring

Translations

Verb

obdurate (third-person singular simple present obdurates, present participle obdurating, simple past and past participle obdurated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To harden; to obdure.

References

Anagrams

• taboured

Latin

Verb

obd?r?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of obd?r?