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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-template-copy-34/
- Published: 2025-07-27T18:15:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-27T18:15:50.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

restive (adjective): 

1: stubbornly resisting control : balky

2: marked by impatience or uneasiness : fidgety

Source : [Merriam -Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/restive?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : Restive is descended from the Anglo-French verb rester, meaning "to stop, resist, or remain." Its initial meaning in the 15th century was "stubbornly resisting control or guidance; obstinate in refusal," and for some time the word was primarily applied to animals such as horses. Over the next few centuries, restive gained additional, closely related meanings (such as "inflexible," "sluggish," and "persistent") and the word often described people as well as animals. In the 19th century this semantic drift extended to encompass the meaning "marked by impatience or uneasiness." Although the original "balky" sense of restive hasn't died out completely, it is overshadowed by this more recent "fidgety or impatient" one. Some usage guides still recommend against using restive in this modern sense, despite well over a century and a half of skilled writers employing it.

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