Rashi, besides explaining the meaning of individual words, will also explain the meaning of idioms. An idiom is a collection or group of words which collectively, as a whole, have a meaning which transcends and differs from the meaning of the individual constituent words. Today we study an idiom which is identical to both Hebrew and English.

Verse Ex32-09 states And HaShem said unto Moses: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people. In both English and Hebrew stiffnecked means stubborn. Thus we could profitably translate the verse as follows And HaShem said unto Moses: 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stubborn people.'

Advanced Rashi: Rashi actually literally says They show their necks and turn their backs to people who talk to them and thereby symbolically affirm their refusal to listen.
• It appears that Rashi is deriving the meaning of stiff necked from the above logical argument -- this however is not the approach to Rashi.
• An alternate argument is that we know the meaning of stiff necked by oral tradition -- this is also unnecessary.
• The proper perspective is that
  • the phrase stiff necked is an idiom whose meaning is known to speakers of the language. That is the oral tradition is not a religious oral tradition but rather a national oral tradition by secular speakers of the language.
  • Rashi's logical argument above is one component of how this idiom developed.
  • Furthermore, it would not contradict Rashi to observe that other forces shaped the idiom -- for example the neckbone has a hard bony nature which symbolizes hardness and lack of flexibility.