www.alphadictionary.com

• adamant •

Pronunciation: æ-dê-mênt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective, Noun

Meaning: 1. (Adjective) Firm, fixed, unchangeable, immovable, stubbornly unyielding and utterly unresponsive to persuasion. 2. (Noun) A supremely hard stone or other impenetrable substance.

Notes: Today's Good Word is a very good word indeed, behaving itself just as we would expect. The adverb is adamantly and the noun, adamancy. There is nothing unpredictable about this word. Enjoy it.

In Play: When nothing, absolutely nothing, can convince you to change your mind, you are adamant: "I remain adamant in my opposition to any Dutch uncle French-kissing an Italian, dressing in front of a German shepherd." (I know it rarely happens.) I also think we should sprinkle our conversations with this Good Word in its guise as a noun: "Don't even try convincing Major Payne of anything: his head is macrocephalic and his heart, a cold adamant."

Word History: Today's Good Word came to English via a rather circuitous route. It began as ancient Greek adamas, adamant-, which originally meant "unconquerable", an adjective comprising a- "not" + damaz-ein "to conquer, tame". Later, however, adamas came to refer to something impenetrably hard and in that sense Latin borrowed it: lapis adamas (Genitive case: lapidis adamantis) "hard stone = magnet; diamond". English borrowed this version in the sense of "hard, unmovable". Then in Medieval Latin, for some odd reason, the initial A and D switched places; adamas became diamas, diamant-is, meaning only "diamond". French developed this form into diamant, which English borrowed and mellowed into diamond. Oh, one other thing: the same Proto-Indo-European word that became damaz- in Greek, became tame in Modern English. Strange bedfellows, don't you think?

Try as he might, the good doc cannot summarize all there is to say about "adamant" in so short a space. Check out the colorful (and sometimes painful) history of "adamant" on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adamant

My favorite reference:

In the 1950s movie Forbidden Planet, Edward Morbius refers to structures that the Krell Civilization created that were made of "adamantine steel."

why was "adamantine" not included in the listing of kin, when it is so useful?

Debbie: "end of the earth". And on that point you
are 'adamant'!. But I know you love it. How goes
the house??

And Adam Ant was a famous cartoon hero, maybe still is.

Could we propose a graduate school of hard knocks to be labeled Admantine Academy? I so propose and can't be dissuaded! I am adamant about it!

Wolverine's skeleton was changed with adamantium.

It's funny how fictitious things like this can become
engrained in one's mind as very real: e.g. Kryptonite.

On the Mohs Hardness Scale DIAMOND ("adamant") with a rating of 12 is considered the hardest substance in the world. TALC with a rating of 1 is considered the softest.

When it comes to Cheese Danish I find my resolve more talc like.

Luke, house goes. but slowly.

how goes the world where you are?

It's funny how fictitious things like this can become engrained in one's mind as very real: e.g. Kryptonite.

Another funny, Kryptonite may be fictitious, but krypton is not. It is one of the noble gasses.

I wonder whether it was named him by a Siegel and Shuster fan.

I wonder whether it was named him by a Siegel and Shuster fan.

Krypton is from the end of the 19th century, so I most sincerely doubt it.

And Adam Ant was a famous cartoon hero, maybe still is.

Could we propose a graduate school of hard knocks to be labeled Admantine Academy? I so propose and can't be dissuaded! I am adamant about it!

Don't you ever, don't you ever, stop being dandy, showing me you're handsome?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p__WmyAE3g

(Sorry, I guess this may not have been big outside the UK )

I believe you might be referring to Atom Ant, of whom I only have historical awareness I fear.

Luke, house goes. but slowly.

how goes the world where you are?

Great! cold today. Today is saparris' 65 birthday.
Thought you might like to know, and he is adamant
that no one know.

Thanks for the headsup!!! Too bad I don't remember how to create audio files. I'd sing him my badly offkey version of happy birthday. He doesn't know how lucky he is that I can't!