truculence

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French truculence, from Latin truculentia.

Noun

truculence (usually uncountable, plural truculences)

  1. The state of being truculent; eagerness to fight; ferocity.
    • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Chapter 7,
      To these provincial autocrats, before whom the peaceable population of all classes had been accustomed to tremble, the reserve of that English-looking engineer caused an uneasiness which swung to and fro between cringing and truculence.
    • 1930, Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Chapter 8, p. 97,
      Dundy’s fists were clenched in front of his body and his feet were planted firm and a little apart on the floor, but the truculence in his face was modified by thin rims of white showing between green irises and upper eyelids.

Synonyms

French

Etymology

From Latin truculentia.

Noun

truculence f (plural truculences)

  1. the state of being truculent (in all senses)
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