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Word of the Week - Contumacious

As a child, I was a voracious reader and loved to learn new words, especially big ones. Unlike most of my classmates, I enjoyed the weekly spelling and vocabulary lists in elementary and high school. Sadly, I have lost many of those great words over the last few decades.  However, learning fun, new words is one of the things that I have been enjoying in law school.
Apparently, judges also like to use big words. Several times a case, I am forced to consult a dictionary to look up legal terms--which is not unexpected. What surprised me is that I find myself looking up other words as well. Obviously, the plain language movement invading the halls of most state governments has not reached the courtroom.
Won't you join me each week as I share a word gleaned from my reading? Contumacious is this week's word courtesy of Justice John V. Vaughn in the case People v. Pettigrew, 332 N.Y.S.2d 33, 37 (1972). And his quote:
Refusal to heed the warning so given; persistence in parading the street in groups thereafter, is, perhaps, so significant of a contumacious disregard of the rights of others that it supports the finding of guilt of the defendants. 
According to Ballentine's Law Dictionary, contumacious means "stubborn or disobedient." As a child, I would have loved this word. How many times can you weave this word into conversations this week?
Here is the pronunciation:


























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