Word of the Day

: July 15, 2009

fractious

adjective FRAK-shus

What It Means

1 : tending to be troublesome : unruly

2 : quarrelsome, irritable

fractious in Context

The class was fractious and uncontrollable when Mr. Douglas first took over as teacher, but he now has the students disciplined, focused, and ready to learn.

Did You Know?

The Latin verb "frangere" ("to break or shatter") has many modern English relations. Dishes that are "fragile" can break easily. A person whose health is easily broken might be described as "frail." A "fraction" is one of the many pieces into which a whole can be broken. But "fraction" also once meant "disharmony" or "discord" -- that is, a "rupture in relations." From this noun sense came the adjective "fractious," meaning "unruly" or "quarrelsome." Though the "disharmony" sense of the noun is now obsolete, "fractious" is still common today.