a. [f. stiff neck + -ED2; after Gr. σκληροτράχηλος, Heb. qeshe-h sōref ‘hard of neck.’] Having a stiff neck. Chiefly fig. of persons, with Biblical reference: Obstinate, stubborn, inflexible, haughty (cf. NECK sb.1 3 b). † Also of a horse: That will not obey the rein.
1526. Tindale, Acts vii. 51. Ye stiffenecked and of vncircumcised hertes and eares.
a. 1533. Frith, Disp. Purgat., II. I j. Yf they be so styfnecked that they wyl not bow to the truth.
1545. Brinklow, Lament. (1874), 79. The greate parte of these inordinate riche styfnecked Cytezens will not haue in their howses that lyuely worde of our soules.
c. 1550. Mary Basset, in More’s Wks. (1557), 1366/1. If after fayre handelyng, we drawe styll stubbernely backeward, and … contynue yet vnreasonably styffe necked, lyke a Horse and Mule whiche haue no maner of vnderstandynge.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Equus, A stiffe necked horse that wil not be ruled.
1625. K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, IV. xix. 310. Being stiffe-necked and stronger than the Bit with which he was held in, hee carryed him forceably into the enemies’ camp.
1710. Tatler, No. 214, ¶ 1. I shall therefore give up this stiff-necked Generation to their own Obstinacy.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 462. One is converted, while the other seemingly goes away stiffnecked in his old errors.
1898. Gissing, in Strand Mag., XV. 28. The stiff-necked old aristocrat had gone to London.
Hence Stiffneckedly adv., obstinately; Stiffneckedness, obstinacy.
a. 1555. Latimer, Lett., in Foxe, A. & M. (1583), 1756/1. It is no small iniquitie to keep any one poore man so long from his right and duetie so stiffeneckedly and obstinately.
1563–83. Foxe, A. & M., 449/1. He alwayes wrote most commendable protestations agaynst obstinacye and stifneckednesse.
1663. J. Wilson, Cheats, II. iii. We are wilfully, stiffneckedly blind.
1699. Clagett, 17 Serm., 216. There will be both inconstancy and stiffneckedness.
1857. Miss Winkworth, Tauler’s Life & Serm., 132, note. He were a heretic who, after much admonition, should stiffneckedly disobey the Word of God.
1861. J. G. Sheppard, Fall Rome, xi. 572. A certain fixedness of resolve, a strength of will degenerating into stiff-neckedness and obstinacy, united to a warm and brilliant, though limited imagination, seems to mark the Semitic mind.
