docious

English

Etymology

Related to docity.[1] Ultimately from Latin doceō (“to teach”); see -ous.

Adjective

docious (comparative more docious, superlative most docious)

  1. (US, regional) Docile, amenable to order.
    • 1848 October 14, P[hilip] P[axton] [pseudonym; Samuel Adams Hammett], “Old Charley Birkham. A Thrilling Incident of the Frontier. […]”, in Spirit of the Times […], volume XVIII, number 34, New York, N.Y., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 402, column 2:
      I stood it all quite docious till the Doctor talked of trying arsenic, and then kicked. […] [T]he best man that the Almighty ever planted on this side had been awfully murdered. Stranger, I can’t bear to think of it now, but when I heard it the first time, it was jest arter I got religion—I could’nt[sic] help it—I swore jest nigh on to half a hour, right straight on eend. I can hardly keep my tongue docious now to talk about it.
    • 2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 137:
      I began to feel docious. Nothing was expected of me; she was a grown woman and she had the reins.

References

  1. ^ “docious, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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