Definition of DOUGHTINESS

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Doughty is a persevering Old English word. Its earliest form was "dyhtig," but early on the vowel changed and the word became "dohtig." That was probably due to influence from a related Old English word, dohte, meaning "had worth." By the 13th century, the spelling "doughty" had begun to appear. The expected pronunciation would be \DAW-tee\, paralleling other similarly spelled old words like "bought" and "sought." But over the centuries, the spelling was sometimes confused with that of the now obsolete word doubty, meaning "full of doubt," and thus, so it is conjectured, we have the pronunciation we use today.

Examples of doughty in a Sentence

the doughty heroes of old

Recent Examples on the Web

Whether saying Kaddish over the corpse of Roy Cohn or lending doughty support to an eccentric stranger battling AIDS, Brown movingly communicates the moral vision of Tony Kushner’s epic masterwork. — Charles Mcnulty, latimes.com, "Tony nominees: 6 featured performances that stole the spotlight, turning small roles into big memories," 9 June 2018 Far from being cowed by the brutal murder of Jan Kuciak, a journalist at Aktuality, Slovakia’s doughty investigative reporters step up their game. — The Economist, "A struggle between authoritarians and liberals in the heart of Europe," 26 May 2018 Some in the United States see any accommodation of Turkish concerns regarding the Syrian Kurds as a betrayal of a partner that proved doughty in the fight against the Islamic State. — chicagotribune.com, "US alliance with Turkey is worth preserving," 19 Mar. 2018 Since this early work, our knowledge of chimpanzees has continued to expand thanks to an array of doughty field workers. — David Barash, WSJ, "‘The New Chimpanzee’ Review: Mysteries of the Chimpanzees," 9 Mar. 2018 Stage Big Parade Tonight, at Hitler's order, Berlin storm troopers staged a gigantic torchlight parade past the chancellory in honor of the president and their doughty little leader. — sandiegouniontribune.com, "Hitler takes power," 31 Jan. 2018 Such things can easily be remedied in the future -- with, say, scattered hay to soak up the mud and better coordination on the crowd control -- and doughty festivalgoers seemed to take the entire episode in stride. — AL.com, "12 takeaways from Sloss Fest 2017 in Birmingham," 18 July 2017 No doubt some doughty psycho-biographer has decreed that the great detective was bipolar, or autistic, or had Asperger’s syndrome. — Simon Callow, New York Times, "The Sound of Sherlock: Stephen Fry Voices the Master Sleuth," 17 May 2017 Among the travelers are Daniels (Katherine Waterston), a stern, doughty young explorer in the Ellen Ripley mold, Oram (Billy Crudup), a brisk captain whose devout Christian faith is about to face off against some very weird science, and— — Guy Lodge, Newsweek, "'Alien: Covenant' Brings the Franchise Back to Its Sci-Fi Horror Roots," 20 May 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'doughty.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.