Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DISPUTATIOUS
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Somehow, in the weird world of the Internet, this trendy haircut has earned a disputatious reputation. Any shopper or diner wearing this style, so says Reddit, is bound to raise a fuss, argue with the staff, and demand a discount. To be disputatious.
The roots inside disputatious don't do much to explain its meaning. They literally mean "(often) considering separately or considering apart." These roots fused into the Latin disputere, meaning "to argue," but also "to discuss, to explain, or to examine."
At the heart here is putare, which can mean "consider" but also "trim, clean, arrange, ponder, judge, or value." It's one of those one-size-fits-all verbs that doesn't give you much to go on if you're trying to puzzle out the meaning of some unfamiliar word with "pute" inside it.
But it does explain the family resemblance among words like dispute, compute, reputation, and our word __pute, meaning "to place blame." Can you recall it?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
make your point with...
"DISPUTATIOUS"
Let's start with the verb "dispute," meaning "to debate, to argue, or to argue against, often in a loud, emotional way." (We looked at "dispute" once before when we studied "undisputed," a great word for describing things that are so true and clear that everyone agrees and no one argues.)
Another form of "dispute" that's particularly useful is the adjective "disputatious," which describes people who are always getting into debates or arguments, even over issues that don't matter.
Pronunciation:
DISS pyoo TAY shuss
Part of speech:
Adjective: "a disputatious letter to the editor," "she's grouchy and disputatious."
Other forms:
disputation, disputatiously, disputatiousness
How to use it:
This word is rare and formal. It's a small step up on the formality scale from "contentious" and "argumentative." And its tone is very negative.
Choose it when you want to describe people who are cranky, whiny, nitpicking, argumentative, grandstanding, obsessed with being right, or eager to take over normal conversations and turn them into courtroom-like proceedings.
Although it's most often people (or groups of people) that we call disputatious, you can also talk about disputatious attitudes, speeches, pieces of writing, conversations, gatherings, etc.
examples:
"Economists are a disputatious bunch, but across the political spectrum we agree on one thing: Politicians shouldn’t be attacking specific companies based on their own whims or preferences."
— Sendhil Mullainathan, New York Times, 18 May 2018
"The Western sage Wallace Stegner called our national parks 'the best idea we ever had.' Even in these fractious times, I don't sense much dissent. The pettiness of human disputation gutters in the face of this magnificent land: these seas, these plains, these mountains, these deserts, these islands."
— David Von Drehle, Washington Post, 19 January 2018
has this page helped you understand "disputatious"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "disputatious" without saying "contentious" or "eager to argue."
try it out:
In Word by Word, Kory Stamper, who writes entries for a dictionary, describes answering emails and letters from disputatious readers.
"We might hear from a person who is upset that we have entered the word 'impactful,' even though it is jargon (true) and meaningless (not true) and ugly (amen)."
She tackles this kind of disputatious correspondence with a combination of patience, strategy, taking breaks, collaborating with her colleagues, and occasionally uttering a stream of curse words into her mouse pad.
Think of when you've been in her shoes. What kind of disputatious people have you dealt with? How were they disputatious? How did you deal with them? In hindsight, can you think of any better ways?
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game this month: Anagrams!
Rearrange the letters in the given word to form a word we've studied before. Try to recall its meaning, too.
For example, if I give you DYED, you give me EDDY. If I give you THREAD, you give me DEARTH. And if I give you COTERIES, you give me ESOTERIC.
Try this one today: CINEMA.
Give yourself 5 points if you can figure out the word without clues. To reveal the clues, hover over the blue text below.
Give yourself 4 points if you figure it out after peeking at the part of speech: Adjective.
Give yourself 3 points if you figure it out after peeking at the definition: low on energy, or weak in body or spirit.
Give yourself 2 points if you figure it out after peeking at the first letter: A.
Give yourself 1 point if you figure it out after peeking at the first two letters: AN.
And if you'd like to reveal or review the word, click here.
review this word:
1. One opposite of DISPUTATIOUS is
A. MINDFUL.
B. AGREEABLE.
C. OPEN-MINDED.
2. Laura Barton refers to Miranda Lambert's songs as "disputatious;" they have lines like ___
A. "It's ten steps in, and a hundred miles back out."
B. "He wants a fight, well now he's got one, and he ain't seen me crazy yet."
C. "I was sitting in the tub just counting my toes when the radiator broke and the water froze."
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
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Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Somehow, in the weird world of the Internet, this trendy haircut has earned a disputatious reputation. Any shopper or diner wearing this style, so says Reddit, is bound to raise a fuss, argue with the staff, and demand a discount. To be disputatious. Let's start with the verb "dispute," meaning "to debate, to argue, or to argue against, often in a loud, emotional way." (We looked at "dispute" once before when we studied "undisputed," a great word for describing things that are so true and clear that everyone agrees and no one argues.)
"Economists are a disputatious bunch, but across the political spectrum we agree on one thing: Politicians shouldn’t be attacking specific companies based on their own whims or preferences."
Explain the meaning of "disputatious" without saying "contentious" or "eager to argue."
In Word by Word, Kory Stamper, who writes entries for a dictionary, describes answering emails and letters from disputatious readers.
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. One opposite of DISPUTATIOUS is
|