obstreperous əb-ˈstre-p(ə-)rəs , äb- adjective
1. noisily and stubbornly defiant
2. boisterously and noisily aggressive
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The word obstreperous has appeared in six articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 5 in the Opinion essay “Luke Perry Had a Stroke and Died. I Had One and Lived” by Kara Swisher:
By the time I’d showered and headed to the restaurant for breakfast, the symptoms were largely gone. So when Jeff called to say I was having a stroke, I think I laughed and said, “You’re a bad doctor.”
Besides, I had Yahoo’s Jerry Yang coming to the conference, I had Alibaba’s Jack Ma coming, I had Al Gore coming. I had no time.
That much was very true. Because he was actually a very good doctor, he insisted in an increasingly urgent tone that I go to the hospital right then. That’s because when it comes to strokes, time is critical. You have to get the blood flowing back to the part of the brain that is not getting it.
So I listened, for once, sidelining the obstreperous little sister, and took a car to get an emergency M.R.I.
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