doughty
/ˈdaʊti/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.83 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Catachresis for dowdy.
name
A surname transferred from the nickname.
Example Sentences
- "Hurriedly he snatched up others, one or two at a time, until he had slaughtered thirty of Hrothgar's doughtiest earls."
- "[S]he [Edwina, mother of Tennessee Williams] was indeed Amanda [Wingfield, character in Williams's play The Glass Menagerie] in the flesh: a doughty chatterbox from Ohio who adopted the manner of a Southern belle and eschewed both drink and sex to the greatest extent possible."
- "Aye, here's a ship of doughty build and strong: But not for lads like you to sail to port."
- "One can imagine the enthusiasm with which this young man in his thirties, and not the fat and doughty Quakerish-looking gentleman usually portrayed in the popular picture of Penn as Proprietor, must have entered upon this great adventure."
- "The experience was something like going before the Daughters of the American Revolution and advocating communism; but then, doughty matronly bosoms always intimidate me."
- "Her remark invited a deeper look into her face, which seemed to flicker between that of a puckish, energetic man and a rather doughty, sturdy-looking woman."
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Middle English doughty (“brave, bold, valiant”), from Old English dohtiġ, dyhtiġ (“competent, good, strong, valiant”), from Proto-West Germanic *duhtīg. The English word may be analysed as dought + -y, and is cognate with Scots douchty, douchtie (“bold, valiant”), Dutch duchtig (“severe, strict”), German tüchtig (“capable, competent, efficient; big; hard”), Danish dygtig (“virtuous, proficient”), Swedish duktig (“efficient; good; capable, clever, smart”), Icelandic dygðugur (“virtuous, stable”). The noun is derived from the adjective.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdaʊti/
- British English: /ˈdaʊti/
Usage
Inflected Forms
doughtier (comparative)
more doughty (comparative)
doughtiest (superlative)
most doughty (superlative)
doubty (alternative, obsolete)
doughties (plural)
Doughtys (plural)
Doughtie (alternative)
Douty (alternative)
Dufty (alternative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
doughty-handed