STUBBORN

Question

Hi."He had little foibles about the kind of game he played-His weakness for the two Bishops was notorious-and he could be tremendeously STUBBORN."Does stubborn here have a negative or positive meaning?

JohnParis · Accepted Answer

If the definition of "stubborn" is "having or showing dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so", what would you say the answer to your question might be?
Do you have a dictionary? Do you need help in learning how to use one? I'd be happy to give you some pointers so that you would be able to learn by research rather than by just firing off questions. Asking questions is the easy way out - finding the answers yourself is what will really help you to learn.
John

Soheil1 · Answer

So when does stubborn have  a + meaning?

JohnParis · Answer

Here is a "usage note" from the Oxford Thesaurus. It explains that the word "stubborn" is not really appropriate for expressing the positive. Other words are better suited for this.

THE RIGHT WORD
If you're the kind of person who takes a stand and then refuses to back down, your friends might say you have a stubborn disposition, a word that implies an innate resistance to any attempt to change one's purpose, course, or opinion.
People who are stubborn by nature exhibit this kind of behavior in most situations, but they might be obstinate in a particular instance (: a stubborn child, he was obstinate in his refusal to eat vegetables). Obstinate implies sticking persistently to an opinion, purpose, or course of action, especially in the face of persuasion or attack.
While obstinate is usually a negative term, dogged can be either positive or negative, implying both tenacious, often sullen, persistence (: dogged pursuit of a college degree, even though he knew he would end up in the family business) and great determination (: dogged loyalty to a cause).
Obdurate usually connotes a stubborn resistance marked by harshness and lack of feeling (: obdurate in ignoring their pleas), while intractable means stubborn in a headstrong sense and difficult for others to control or manage (: intractable pain).
No matter how stubborn you are, you probably don't want to be called pertinacious, which implies persistence to the point of being annoying or unreasonable (: a pertinacious panhandler).

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