truculence

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From French truculence, from Latin truculentia.

Noun

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truculence (usually uncountable, plural truculences)

  1. The state of being truculent; eagerness to fight; ferocity.
    • 1904 January 29 – October 7, Joseph Conrad, chapter 7, in Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard, London, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers [], published 1904, →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Disintegration Machine[1]:
      He was huge in all that he did, and his benevolence was even more overpowering than his truculence.
    • 1930, Dashiell Hammet, chapter 8, in The Maltese Falcon, New York, N.Y., London: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC, page 97:
      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.
    • 2020, Bret Stephens, “Meet a Secret Trump Voter”, in New York Times[2]:
      Trump’s truculence on the world stage: “Everyone kowtows to Iran because they’re crazy. Now we have our own bit of crazy.”

Synonyms

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French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin truculentia.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /tʁy.ky.lɑ̃s/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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truculence f (plural truculences)

  1. truculence (eagerness to fight)
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Further reading

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