No rest for the restive

July 10th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

“Restive” is one of those words, like “noisome,” that isn’t what it seems to be.

Its original sense was more like resistant to moving. It retains the meaning “refusing to go forward” — that is, trying to stay at rest.

More commonly nowadays it’s used to mean “hard to control; unruly” or “nervous or impatient under pressure or restraint.”

In other words, it’s more restless than restful.

Entry Filed under: word choices, definitions