adamant

[ad-uh-muh nt, -mant] /ˈæd ə mənt, -ˌmænt/
adjective
1.
utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals, urgings, etc.
2.
too hard to cut, break, or pierce.
noun
3.
any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance.
4.
a legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond.
Origin
before 900; Middle English < Old French adamaunt < Latin adamant- (stem of adamas) hard metal (perhaps steel), diamond < Greek, equivalent to a- a-6 + -damant- verbal adjective of damân to tame, conquer; replacing Old English athamans (< Medieval Latin) and Middle English aymont < Middle French aimant < Vulgar Latin *adimant- < Latin
Related forms
adamancy
[ad-uh-muh n-see] /ˈæd ə mən si/ (Show IPA), adamance, noun
adamantly, adverb
unadamant, adjective
Synonyms
1. inflexible, rigid, uncompromising.
Antonyms
1. flexible, easygoing, yielding.
Examples from the web for adamant
  • They are adamant about keeping this power so they can protect industries to which they have ties.
  • But the test subjects were adamant that they were playing by the rules.
  • In short, he is a goth, which explains his adamant objection to summer.
  • Others remain adamant that the overall implications of warming will be a detriment to the globe.
  • Every obstacle has vanished into air; every favorable circumstance has hardened into adamant.
  • And she said she has been adamant that her friends vote, too.
  • The officer was adamant that the light was red before I went though it.
  • Her husband was adamant that his sons go to college; both graduated from Fordham.
  • It's funny to think back to when we were so adamant about having privacy.
  • He was adamant that he not be afforded any "special" privileges.
British Dictionary definitions for adamant

adamant

/ˈædəmənt/
adjective
1.
unshakable in purpose, determination, or opinion; unyielding
2.
a less common word for adamantine (sense 1)
noun
3.
any extremely hard or apparently unbreakable substance
4.
a legendary stone said to be impenetrable, often identified with the diamond or loadstone
Derived Forms
adamantly, adverb
Word Origin
Old English: from Latin adamant-, stem of adamas, from Greek; literal meaning perhaps: unconquerable, from a-1 + daman to tame, conquer
Word Origin and History for adamant
adj.

late 14c., "hard, unbreakable," from adamant (n.). Figurative sense of "unshakeable" first recorded 1670s. Related: Adamantly; adamance.

n.

mid-14c., from Old French adamant and directly from Latin adamantem (nominative adamas) "adamant, hardest iron, steel," also figuratively, of character, from Greek adamas (genitive adamantos) "unbreakable, inflexible" metaphoric of anything unalterable, also the name of a hypothetical hardest material, perhaps literally "invincible," from a- "not" + daman "to conquer, to tame" (see tame (adj.)), or else a word of foreign origin altered to conform to Greek.

Applied in antiquity to white sapphire, magnet (perhaps via confusion with Latin adamare "to love passionately"), steel, emery stone, and especially diamond (see diamond). The word was in Old English as aðamans "a very hard stone."

adamant in the Bible

(Heb. shamir), Ezek. 3:9. The Greek word adamas means diamond. This stone is not referred to, but corundum or some kind of hard steel. It is an emblem of firmness in resisting adversaries of the truth (Zech. 7:12), and of hard-heartedness against the truth (Jer. 17:1).