trenchant

English

WOTD – 3 March 2016

Alternative forms

• trenchaunt (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Old French trenchant, the present participle of trenchier (“to cut”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɹɛnʃənt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

trenchant (comparative more trenchant, superlative most trenchant)

1. (chiefly archaic) Fitted to trench or cut; gutting; sharp.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:

     The trenchant blade, Toledo trusty, / For want of fighting was grown rusty, / And ate into itself, for lack / Of somebody to hew and hack.

   1. (zoology, of teeth) Adapted for tearing into flesh.
      • 1971, Thomas H. V. Rich, Deltatheridia, Carnivora, and Condylarthra (Mammalia) of the Early Eocene, Paris Basin, France:

        The trenchant talonid is a character of some miacids and distinguishes these teeth from the hyaenodontids and oxyaenids.

2. (figuratively) Keen; biting; vigorously articulate and effective; severe.

   trenchant wit

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, pages 210–211:

     His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe.

   • 2011, Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940:

     His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale.

Translations

sharp

• Bulgarian: рязко очертан (rjazko očertan)
• Finnish: pureva (fi), terävä (fi)
• French: tranchant (fr)
• German: schneidend (de)
• Ido: tranchiva (io), tranchema
• Portuguese: cortante (pt) m or f, afiado (pt) m
• Russian: о́стрый (ru) m (óstryj)
• Swedish: skarp (sv)

biting, severe

• Bulgarian: рязък (bg) (rjazǎk), язвителен (bg) (jazvitelen)
• Finnish: pureva (fi), terävä (fi)
• German: treffsicher, prägnant (de), beißend (de), pointiert (de), scharf (de), stechend (de)
• Hebrew: חריף (he) (kharíf), שנון (he) (shanún)
• Portuguese: mordaz (pt) m or f, incisivo m
• Russian: ко́лкий (ru) m (kólkij)
• Swedish: bitande (kritik); kraftfull

Middle French

Etymology

Old French trenchant.

Noun

trenchant m or f (plural trenchans)

1. sharp

Descendants

• French: tranchant

Old French

Adjective

trenchant m (oblique and nominative feminine singular trenchant or trenchante)

1. sharp; razor sharp

Declension

Declension of trenchant

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	trenchanz	trenchant, trenchante	trenchant
	Oblique	trenchant			trenchant, trenchante	trenchant
Plural	Subject	trenchant	trenchanz, trenchantes		trenchant
	Oblique	trenchanz			trenchanz, trenchantes	trenchant

Verb

trenchant

1. present participle of trenchier