Contentious | Vocabulary
About this video
David teaches the adjective 'contentious', which means involving arguing or quarrelsome. He explains that it comes from the Latin 'con' (together, with) and 'tendere' (to stretch), like two people pulling on a rope in a tug of war, and links it to words like tension, container and extend.
You'll be able to
- explain what 'contentious' means and use it in a sentence.
- explain how the Latin parts 'con' and 'tend' build the meaning of 'contentious'.
- name other English words that share the parts 'con' or 'tend'.
Key words
- contentious
- An adjective describing something that involves a lot of arguing or is likely to cause arguments.
- quarrelsome
- Likely to argue or fight.
- contend
- To fight or compete with someone for something.
- tension
- Being stretched tight, or an unspoken conflict between people.
- compromise
- An agreement where each side gives up a bit of what it wanted.
Transcript
- I've got a bone to pick with you, wordsmiths, because this video is about the word contentious. Contentious. It's an adjective and it means involving arguing. Quarrelsome, we had a contentious debate over whether bears were scarier than snakes. Kind of looks like a pig, but pigs can also be scary.
I don't know. This word comes to us from Latin, contentious, and it's a combination of two parts. Con, which means together or with and tendere which means to stretch, to contend for something in English is to fight for it with someone else, you're stretching your relationship with someone like a tug of war where you're both pulling on the end of a rope.
So something that's contentious is, for lack of a better word, fighty, argumentative. Keeping those elements con and tend in mind. Try to come up with a couple of similar words in English that contain those parts. I'll give you 10 seconds. All right? Take me home country road.
(upbeat music) Here were some of mine. Tension, which is when something is stretched tight, like a rubber band or a spring, or it can also be a kind of unspoken conflict between people. Container, a box, an enclosure of some kind. Con tainer means held together and extend, which means to stretch out, to extend the hand of friendship.
Let's try it in a sentence. Over a series of contentious meetings, team cake finally agreed to a compromise with team pie. It must have been a bitter conflict. Well, I guess a sweet conflict actually. Another one, when we play Monopoly, it's always a contentious issue as to who gets to be the thimble.
That's a weird thing to argue over, in my opinion. I love a thimble. Sure, but the Scotty dog and the top hat are right there. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 vocabulary words. We gotta hash this argument out first. You contentious, wordsmiths you, you can learn anything.
David out.
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