different between truculence vs truculently

English

Alternative forms

• truculency

Etymology

From French truculence, from Latin truculentia.

Noun

truculence (usually uncountable, plural truculences)

1. The state of being truculent; eagerness to fight; ferocity.
   • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 7,^[1]

     To these provincial autocrats, before whom the peaceable population of all classes had been accustomed to tremble, the reserve of that English-looking engineer caused an uneasiness which swung to and fro between cringing and truculence.

   • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Chapter 8, p. 97,^[3]

     Dundy’s fists were clenched in front of his body and his feet were planted firm and a little apart on the floor, but the truculence in his face was modified by thin rims of white showing between green irises and upper eyelids.

Synonyms

• aggressiveness
• defiance
• ferociousness
• savageness
• truculency

French

Etymology

From Latin truculentia.

Noun

truculence f (plural truculences)

1. the state of being truculent (in all senses)

English

Etymology

truculent +? -ly

Adverb

truculently (comparative more truculently, superlative most truculently)

1. With aggression; savagely.
   • 1954, William Golding, Lord of the Flies, chapter 11

     Truculently they squared up to each other but kept just out of fighting distance?

Synonyms

• (with agression): aggressively, belligerently, cruelly, defiantly, ferociously, savagely

Related terms

• truculence
• truculent

Translations