fractious
- Irritable, quarrelsome, and difficult to control or manage.
- Causing trouble within a group; disruptive or contentious.
In a sentence
- The fractious toddler refused to sit still and cried throughout the entire train journey.
- Managing the fractious coalition required endless compromise and diplomatic skill.
Usage note. Commonly applied to children, animals, or difficult political groups; unlike 'argumentative', 'fractious' also implies restlessness and an inherent resistance to control.
Where it comes from
English fractious · entered English early 18th c.
From 'fraction' in its now-obsolete sense of 'discord' or 'quarreling', derived from Latin 'fractio' (a breaking), from 'frangere' (to break). It entered English in the early 18th century, with the '-ous' suffix added on the analogy of words like 'captious'.