A stubborn or obstinate person; someone who is difficult to persuade or convince.
Combines 'hardy' (Middle English, from Old Norse 'hardugr' meaning bold) with 'head' (Old English 'heafod'). The compound emerged in Middle English to describe someone whose mental hardness makes them inflexible.
This word perfectly captures how English speakers created descriptive compound words—'hardhead' is still used today for stubborn fish species and people alike, showing how we reuse the same metaphor across centuries to describe things that are tough and unyielding.
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