pugnacious

Borrowed from Latin, from a derivative of pugnax, from pugnō (“I fight”), from pugnus (“fist”), from Proto-Indo-European roots.

• (UK)/(US) IPA^(key): /pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/
• Rhymes: -eɪʃəs

pugnacious (comparative more pugnacious, superlative most pugnacious)

1. Naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent; bellicose.
   • 1858, Anthony Trollope, chapter 3, in Dr Thorne:

     Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling.

   • 1904, Jack London, chapter 15, in The Sea Wolf:

     As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty.

   • 2003, Ken Follett, Hornet Flight‎, →ISBN, pages 249-250:

     In the face of bad news Churchill normally became even more pugnacious, always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack.

   • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎:

     [I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality.

• See also Thesaurus:combative

• impugn
• poniard
• pugilism
• pugnacity
• repugn (repugnant)