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ornery

 
Dictionary: or·ner·y   (ôr'nə-rē) pronunciation
adj., -i·er, -i·est.
Mean-spirited, disagreeable, and contrary in disposition; cantankerous.

[Alteration of ORDINARY.]

orneriness or'ner·i·ness' n.

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Word Origin: ornery
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Origin: 1816

It was just an ordinary word. That is where ornery comes from, being a dialect or slang use of ordinary, and that is how it is used when we first meet it in Farmer Brown's journal for 1816, published later in the Maryland Historical Magazine: "The Land is old, completely worn out, the farming extremely ornary in general." But to an American, being called ordinary is hardly a compliment; in fact it is positively mean (another word meaning "ordinary"). So ornery soon developed a correspondingly negative connotation, as in this exchange from the Massachusetts Spy & Worcester County Advocate of July 28, 1830:

And in this example from Knickerbocker Magazine in 1857: "That poor ornary cuss of a red-haired, cross-eyed grocerykeeper." And from Elizabeth Custer, the widow of George Armstrong, in Tenting on the Plains (1887): "He's a good enough fellow, only he's an ornery scamp of a Republican."

By 1899 we were using orneriness too, in the sense of "the quality of being positively mean." In The Gentleman from Indiana, Booth Tarkington wrote, "Sometimes they...let loose their deviltries just for pure orneriness."



WordNet: ornery
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: having a difficult and contrary disposition
  Synonyms: cantankerous, crotchety


Translations: Ornery
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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - umedgørlig, stædig, smålig, lav, ussel

Nederlands (Dutch)
halsstarrig, onaangenaam, van slechte kwaliteit

Français (French)
adj. - (US) mesquin, méchant, revêche, entêté

Deutsch (German)
adj. - gemein, schlechtgelaunt, schwierig

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - (ΗΠΑ) (καθομ.) δύστροπος (κν. στριμμένος, τζαναμπέτης)

Italiano (Italian)
irascibile, irritabile, accidioso, maldisposto, eccentrico, strambo, volgare, ordinario

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - vulgar, intratável, rebelde

Русский (Russian)
подлый, упрямый, низкий

Español (Spanish)
adj. - terco, tozudo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - grinig, sur, envis, omedgörlig, påstridig, simpel, tarvlig

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
下等的, 故意刁难的, 低劣的

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 下等的, 故意刁難的, 低劣的

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 성질이 고약한, 천한, 평범한

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - すぐかっとなる, けんか腰の, 強情な, 平凡な, 下品な

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) مشاكس‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮עקשן, רע-מזג, שפל, מאיכות ירודה‬


 
 
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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Word Origin. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

 

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