… to describe a person whose every utterance is absolute, who is positive that s/he is right and who does not harbor any doubts about anything s/he says. You should just take their utterances as given, and not expect any supporting evidence, even though there may be a lot of both supporting and counter evidence. This person does not know “on the other hand.”
Now that I’ve written out the description, it sounds a lot like Sheldon Cooper. Interesting. Has anyone on that show used the word I’m looking for (something specific to this characteristic, not a generic “asshole” sort of word)?
I was so sure there was such a word, but I have been reaching for it for days now and I can’t come up with one. I’ve tried thesauruses to no avail.
There’s the phrase “ipse dixit” which means “he has spoken”. It originally referred to somebody who had the power to make official declarations - for example, a judge - but now it more often refers to somebody who acts as if anything they say is a declaration of fact.
Looking it up it gives pertinacious as a synonym. I’ve never used that word and if you think I’m going to start now you’ve got another thing coming!
Also refractory, but I’ve been using that to describe bricks.
Dogmatic. That’s the word I was trying to think of (thanks guizot).
Not a difficult or unusual word, but I just couldn’t think of it. I’m sure there’s a good reason for that, other than creeping senility.
Lots of other good words up there too, guys. But “dogmatic” is the one I was trying to think of, that was in the back of my mind and the tip of my tongue at the same time.
(Here’s a phenomenon, I wonder if there’s a name for it: while trying to think of this word I came up with “didactic” which is sort of related but not a synonym. Once I had that word in my head that was it, I couldn’t come up with the right word because “didactic” was too close in sound and was sort of blocking the right word.)
That phenomenon you describe is attacking me a lot these days (must be related to aging somehow) to the point of having to rely on another similar sequence of events: that of knowing that if I wait a while (hours in some cases) the missing word or face or snippet of a song will eventually penetrate my consciousness from where it had been lurking.
Just the other day I was having lunch with some old buddies and had several instances of having to wait to finish a thought or sentence until that “recall circuit” had completed. At least the other folks had similar issues so I wasn’t made to feel totally inadequate.