redoubtable ri-ˈdau̇-tə-bəl adjective
1. inspiring fear
2. worthy of respect or honor
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The word redoubtable has appeared in 15 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Jan. 24 in the obituary “Norman Goodman, 95, Dies; Summoned Manhattanites to Jury Duty, Like It or Not” by Margalit Fox:
For generations, his name struck fear in Manhattanites’ hearts.
Year in and year out, with fatalistic regularity, envelopes bearing that name would invade the homes of the unwary, the unwilling and the unready.
On each of them, a printed signature loomed sternly over the upper-left-hand corner: “Norman Goodman,” the name appended to the borough’s jury summonses for nearly half a century.
… A lawyer, Mr. Goodman was one of the city’s longest-serving public employees, as redoubtable an institution as the Automat and even more enduring. He held the county clerk’s post, in principle a lifetime appointment, from 1969 until his retirement on Dec. 31, 2014, the day after his 91st birthday. During those years, he issued between 11 million and 12 million jury summonses.
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