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Monday May 10, 1999

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pugnacious \puhg-NAY-shuhs\ , adjective:
Inclined to fight; combative; quarrelsome.

Roberto's pugnacious grandmother lived across the meadow and would yell threats and curses helplessly from her balcony.
-- Tag Gallagher, The Adventures of Roberto Rossellini

The idea that he was truculent or pugnacious, that he went about with a chip on his shoulder, that he loved fighting for the sake of fighting, was, however, a mistake.
-- William Roscoe Thayer, Theodore Roosevelt: An Intimate Biography

Pugnacious comes from Latin pugnare, "to fight," from pugnus, "fist."

Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for pugnacious

 

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