Joan of Arc

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Appellativisation of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc), the name of a 15th century French folk heroine revered as a martyr.

Noun[edit]

Joan of Arc (plural Joans of Arc or Joan of Arcs)

  1. (figuratively) A brave, visionary, or martial woman.
    • 2013, Arcade Fire, “Joan of Arc”, in Reflektor:
      And they're the ones that put you down/ 'Cause they got no heart / But I'm the one that will follow you / You're my Joan of Arc
    • 2020, Lindsay Harroff, “From Sitting In to Sitting Out: Gloria Richardson and the 1963 Cambridge Movement”, in Lesli K. Pace, Sean Patrick O'Rourke, editors, Like Wildfire: The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Sit-Ins[1], page 204:
      Volatile yet stubborn, self-interested yet a modern Joan of Arc—criticisms of Richardson were as contradictory as they claimed her to be.
    • 2021, Steve Giblin, Jon Land, Walking in Mud: A Navy SEAL’s 10 Rules for Surviving the New Normal, unnumbered page:
      Digressing a bit, the mission statement of this chapter is to illustrate the example set for all of us by the Joan of Arcs of today—women who serve in Special Operations in particular, and the military in general []

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Further reading[edit]