sturdy

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
sturdy/ˈstɜːdi/

▶adjective (sturdier, sturdiest) strongly and solidly built or made.

■ confident and determined: a sturdy independence.

▶noun vertigo in sheep caused by a tapeworm larva encysted in the brain.

– derivatives
sturdied adjective,
sturdily adverb,
sturdiness noun.

word history: In medieval times sturdy meant ‘reckless, violent’ and ‘intractable, obstinate’. The word is a shortening of Old French esturdi ‘stunned, dazed’, and is thought to be based on Latin turdus ‘a thrush’: thrushes were formerly associated with drunkenness, possibly because of eating wine grapes. Interestingly, there is an old French phrase soûl comme une grive, which means ‘drunk as a thrush’.