Will Words

George Will is famous for his use of alliteration and brainy vocabulary. Sometimes a lowly commoner like myself is left scratching their head at one of his verbal flourishes or heady comparisons between Beltway politics and obscure baseball facts. We'll be exploring them from time to time on this blog to show how dumb I am and how smart Will is.

His most recent column sent me running to dictionary.com: "State governments, too, are expected to accept Washington’s whims, but plucky Indiana is being obdurate." Will used this word a few months ago and I think Ben Hur used it. In both cases I merely pretended to get it but now I have to know...

ob⋅du⋅rate
–adjective
1. unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.
2. stubbornly resistant to moral influence; persistently impenitent: an obdurate sinner.

Now I can use it in a sentence: "Blue jeans are widely considered to be harmless, but Mr. Will is obdurate on the matter."