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 Some of that freshness comes from the cast, a cornucopia of effervescent young talent ballasted by a handful of doughty old-timers. — New York Times, "‘Little Women’ Review: This Movie Is Big," 23 Dec. 2019 On yet another set sits a doughty Victorian tugboat, the deck raked at an alarming angle, as if bracing against an unexpected swell. — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, "Extraordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things: Behind the Scenes of Cats," 19 Dec. 2019 That a teenager could not only appear for such an assessment but do so before the doughty examiner Mistowsky was an astonishing achievement. — Priya Chaturvedi, Quartz India, "The story of a female Indian violinist whose phenomenal career was cut short by fate," 16 July 2019 At nearly a century, the Duke of Edinburgh is the proud, doughty patriarch of a Royal Firm eminently well-prepared for the modern era. — Juliet Rieden, Town & Country, "At 98, Prince Philip Is the Last of the Old-School Royals," 10 June 2019 And yet amid the carnage, the earnest, doughty station wagon has emerged unscathed. — Kyle Stock, The Seattle Times, "Richer Americans are skipping SUVs for station wagons," 7 Jan. 2019 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

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.

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Last Updated

30 Dec 2019

Cite this Entry

“Doughty.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/doughtiness. Accessed 28 January 2020.