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Ornery vs Onery - What's the difference?

ornery | onery |

As adjectives the difference between onery and ornery

is that onery is {{eye dialect|ornery|lang=en} while ornery is cantankerous, stubborn, disagreeable.

ornery

English

Adjective

(er)
  • (Appalachian) Cantankerous, stubborn, disagreeable.
  • * 1990 . , Rabbit at Rest
    • “Grandpa, what’s ‘ornery’?” / “Oh, you know. Mean. Contrary. Rebellious.”
  • * 1939 . From the Script of (1939)
    • Curley: "I ain't sayin' I don't share your sentiments, Buck, but you're a born fool. First place Luke would kill the Kid in a gun-fight. Second place if Luke did get shot he's got two brothers just as ornery as he is, and if Ike Plummer didn't kill the Kid then Hank Plummer would."
  • (humorous, Southern US) Mischievous, prankish, teasing, disagreeable but in a good way.
  • (obsolete) Commonplace, inferior.

    • Derived terms

    * ornerily * orneriness

    onery

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (US, particularly, Southern US)

    • Usage notes

    The absence of the initial "r" in ornery is said to be chiefly in Southern US pronunciation. Usage of onery might therefore be supposed to correspond to Southern US usage of ornery.