froward

fro•ward (FROH-werd, FROH-erd)  adj

Definition:
willfully contrary; not easily managed

frowardness noun; frowardly adverb

Origin:
1150–1200; O.E. fromweard "turned from or away," from from + -weard; opposite of toward, it renders L. pervertus in early translations of the Psalms, and also meant "about to depart, departing," and "doomed to die"

Related:
Synonyms: adverse, balky, contrary, headstrong, insubmissive, obstinate, refractory, stubborn, unyielding, antagonistic, antipodal, antipodean, contradictory, contrariant, contumacious, discordant, dissentient, opposed, ornery, recusant
Related Words: afterward, toward, backward, awkward, steward, forward, untoward

Sentence Examples:
• "Tell your sister for me," I recall his saying, "what a kind, good, and deserving man I am. How I love little children and [with a dry chuckle] elderly spinsters. Relate how I was born of rich yet honest parents, was reared in the 'nurture and admonition of the Lord,' and, according to the bent of a froward youth, have stumbled along to become the cynosure of a ribald age." - Eugene Field, A Study In Heredity And Contradictions, Slason Thompson

• The froward fellow put his fingers to his lips, as the little children do to blow a kiss, and when his eyes fell on that wench's, meseemed that this was not the first time they had met. - Margery, by Georg Ebers

• It may suffice to touch very slightly on some other arguments, which it would hardly be right to leave altogether unnoticed: one of these (the justice of which, however denied by superficial moralists, parents of strict principles can abundantly testify) may be drawn from the perverse and froward dispositions perceivable in children, which it is the business and sometimes the ineffectual attempt of education to reform.  - A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity, William Wilberforce

Sources: Dictionary.com, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

pervicacious

per•vi•ca•cious (pur-vi-KEY-shuhs)  adj

Definition:
extremely willful; obstinate; stubborn

pervicaciousness noun; pervicaciously adverb

Origin:
1625–35;  from Latin pervica-c-,  s. of pervica-x  stubborn, willful ( per-  + vic-,  var. s. of vincere  to conquer  + -a-x  adj. suffix denoting tendency or ability) + -ious

Related:
Synonyms: adamant, bullheaded, cantankerous, contumacious, inexorable, inflexible, intractable, mulish, obdurate, pertinacious, pigheaded,  refractory, tenacious, unbending, unreasonable, unshakable, willful

Sentence Examples:
• For a girl to lay so much stress upon going to church, and yet resolve to defy her parents, in an article of the greatest consequence to them, and to the whole family, is an absurdity.  You are recommended, Miss, to the practice of your private devotions.  May they be efficacious upon the mind of one of the most pervicacious young creatures that ever was heard of! -Clarissa, Samuel Richardson

• Of late, I am told by shopkeepers, the tin box with the pervicacious cover is becoming popular; but I remain true to my sponge in a bottle: for, unlike the leopard, I am able to change my spots. -The Perfect Gentleman, Ralph Bergengren

• It happened a little while thereafter that he made a most heavy regret thereof to his father, attributing the causes of his bad success in pacificatory enterprises to the perversity, stubbornness, froward, cross, and backward inclinations of the people of his time; roundly, boldly, and irreverently upbraiding, that if but a score of years before the world had been so wayward, obstinate, pervicacious, implacable, and out of all square, frame, and order as it was then, his father had never attained to and acquired the honour and title of Strife-appeaser so irrefragably, inviolably, and irrevocably as he had done.  -Gargantua and Pantagruel, Francois Rabelais

The Storyline
... not the least of which was due to his pervicaciousness in fighting these petty battles.

Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day