contumacy

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   stubborn resistance to authority; deliberate and obstinate disobedience

   The governor treated the prisoner's continued contumacy as a direct challenge to his authority.

2. 2
   noun

   law: wilful refusal to obey a court order or appear when summoned

   The judge imposed a penalty for contumacy after the witness ignored a second summons.

From Latin contumacia ('stubbornness, insolence'), from contumax ('disobedient, obstinate; refusing a legal summons'). English preserved both the broad sense of defiance and the narrower legal sense of refusing a court's authority.

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