Ornery meaning

Readers who are familiar with one of the more common senses of ornery "irritable" ornery meaning well be surprised to learn that the word is an alteration of the word ordinaryornery meaning, as this root word has little to do with feelings of peevishness. Yet this is the case, ornery meaning, and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for how this meaning came about. Ornery was first used in American regional speech in the beginning of the 19th century as a simple variant of ordinaryand for some while it had the same meaning.

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective ornery. Etymons: ordinary adj. Sign in with library card. Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic. Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into ornery, adj. Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Ornery meaning

The experience helped me to understand my emotions toward her in a way I never could have managed as an ornery year-old. The characters you play on the show are extremely diverse—ranging from a cocaine-rattled rich boy to an ornery Jewish grandpa. The budding relationship between the ornery sexagenarian and the precocious young child ultimately gives the film its momentum. With Nebraska, however, the movie received a minute standing ovation by the famously ornery French crowd. We had some pretty ornery people, and we had to find a way to compromise and get things done. He's an ornery cuss kind of Republican, extremely critical of Bush and Cheney back in the day. With a roast apple in his snout, and a ribbon—a blue—no, a pink ribbon decorating his ornery little tail. I felt so ornery and low down and mean that I says to myself, my mind's made up; I'll hive that money for them or bust. The Irish may be ornery , and they aint worth much, but they are a whole lot better than the —— —— Dutch. I'm for the Union as she air, and withered be the arm of every ornery cuss who attempts to bust her up. The jail was a ornery edifiss, but the table was librally surplied with Bakin an Cabbidge. First recorded in —; contraction of ordinary.

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There is one meaning in OED's entry for the adjective ornery. Etymons: ordinary adj. Sign in with library card. Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic. Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into ornery, adj. Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback.

Ornery meaning

Modern lexicographers tend to avoid inserting their own character into definitions; it's difficult enough to accurately define the messiness that is the English language without having to worry about whether one's own foibles or prejudices are muddying the semantic waters. Samuel Johnson, famous for the occasional definitional bon mot he defined lexicographer as "a harmless drudge" gets a pass, but he's not all that modern. However, every so often we come across a definition which, although it would probably not pass muster in today's dictionaries, makes this sort of editorializing seem reasonable. As when Bret Harte defined ornery as "Corruption of 'ordinary,' with a spice of contempt. Harte was a poet and short story writer, not a lexicographer, but near the end of the 19th century included a "Glossary of Far-Western Terms" in one of his books. Most of his definitions are rather straightforward and dry; the 'spice of contempt' addition is just the sort of short and poetic turn of phrase that manages to convey more information than heaps of technical jargon would. It is a memorable definition, and all the better for being largely accurate. The English-speaking people have been shortening ordinary in one manner or another since at least the early 16th century.

Manacled runes

Based on the best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand, Seabiscuit tells the true story of an ornery , undersize, beaten-up Thoroughbred who becomes a champion in the s. Collins API. Mandarin Chinese characters. They have a large family; so there were tons of kids of all ages there. Institutional account management Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic. His problem, it turns out, is that he is an unscrupulous, treacherous, selfish, greedy, lying, thieving scoundrel, and at the same time an irascible, ornery , cantankerous, ill-mannered, bad-tempered old grouch. Homophones, Homographs, and Homonyms. Need even more definitions? Examples of ornery in a Sentence. English Usage. These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. The sentence contains offensive content. Register now or log in to access. Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into ornery, adj.

Accessed 8 Mar. Nglish: Translation of ornery for Spanish Speakers. Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Did you know? English Usage. Personal account Access or purchase personal subscriptions Get our newsletter Save searches Set display preferences Sign in Register. Mickey then uses his tricks to get back at the ornery duck. Quiz French confusables. Institutional account management Sign in as administrator on Oxford Academic. See pronunciation. German to English. English to Traditional. Share the Definition of ornery on Twitter Twitter. Translations Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Yet this is the case, and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for how this meaning came about. Quiz English grammar.