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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 3/7/2009
Posts: 29,296
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Location: Inside Farlex computers
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cantankerous(adjective) Ill-tempered and quarrelsome; disagreeable. Synonyms: bloody-mindedUsage: I am an extremely considerate neighbor, yet the cantankerous old lady next door is constantly lodging complaints about me with our landlord.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 6/25/2014
Posts: 401
Neurons: 2,787
Location: Veinau, Baden-Wuerttemberg Region, Germany
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Cantankerous season for my cousin Jane.. Spring became... who must stand by and watch the dragons of our Persian AEmpire folded wing in wing.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/21/2012
Posts: 4,669
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The wisest course, either on the Internet or in real life, is to steer clear of cantankerous individuals.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 2/4/2014
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Location: Bogotá, Bogota D.C., Colombia
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The origins of “cantankerous”“Cantankerous” first appeared in print in English, as far as we know, in Oliver Goldsmith’s 1772 comedic play She Stoops to Conquer (“There’s not a more bitter cantanckerous road in all christendom”). It’s worth noting that “cantankerous,” unlike many words, has never varied in meaning since its first appearance. It still just means “cranky and difficult” and it’s still in wide use today (“But rather than crack a smile, [Barney] Frank began a harangue that was cantankerous even by his standards, sniping at everything from the Tea Party to the Boston Herald,” Boston Globe, 11/03/10). The origins of “cantankerous” are, fittingly for a word that means “uncooperative,” uncertain, although we do have a general sense of its lineage. The most likely source is the Middle English “”conteke,” which meant “contention, quarrelling,” from which came “contekour,” a person who argues, and finally something like “contackerous” meaning the quality of being a real pill. The final form of “cantankerous” may have been influenced by the spelling of words such as “traitorous” and “rancorous.” It’s also possible that “cantankerous” is related to the Irish “cannran,” meaning “strife or grumbling.” Or that it is based on the Old French “contechier,” meaning, loosely, “firmly held,” which certainly fits with the idea of stubbornness. If this Anglo-French connection is true, the ultimate root of “cantankerous” may be the Latin “contactus,” past participle of “contingere,” meaning “to touch” and also the source of our English “contact.” That may sound like a rather large cloud of possibilities that doesn’t get us very far in our quest for the origin of “cantankerous,” but its possible that all of those theories are true and just represent various bits of a very winding path taken by the word. http://www.word-detective.com/2011/05/cantankerous/
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 7/2/2014
Posts: 34
Neurons: 320
Location: New York City, New York, United States
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The situation between Phillip and Sandra is very cantankerous to her new boyfriend, which feels that he should accept that he moved on.... 
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Rank: Member
Joined: 6/17/2014
Posts: 61
Neurons: 25,238
Location: Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom
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The older I get the more cantankerous I become.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 5/25/2014
Posts: 187
Neurons: 4,920
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A cantankerous person is hard to deal with.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 8/3/2013
Posts: 345
Neurons: 20,818
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I always pronounce it "cantankerous," not "tantankerous".
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 7/12/2014
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[quote=GreenBanana]I always pronounce it "cantankerous," not "tantankerous". [/quote
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 7/12/2014
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Word of the day skankerous,,,,Cunkerous, whor-eous
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 1/8/2014
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Location: Sylva, North Carolina, United States
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I have been told lately that I was cantankerous. Oh well...
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