termagant

See also: Termagant

English

Alternative forms

• termigant

Etymology

From Termagant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɜːməɡənt/
• IPA^(key): /ˈtɚməɡənt/

Noun

termagant (plural termagants)

1. A quarrelsome, scolding woman, especially one who is old and shrewish.
   • 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2

     [...] Make feeble ladies, in their works, / To fight like termagants and Turks; [...]

   • 1907, Isaac Flagg, Plato: the Apology and Crito, page 196:

     The name of Xanthippe, the wife of Socrates, has become proverbial for a termagant.

   • 1970, Robertson Davies, Fifth Business:

     Easier divorce, equal pay for equal work as between men and women, no discrimination between the sexes in employment – these were her causes, and in promoting them she was no comic-strip feminist termagant, but reasonable, logical, and untiring.

2. (obsolete) A boisterous, brawling, turbulent person, whether male or female.
   • 1543, John Bale

     This terrible termagant, this Nero, this Pharaoh.

   • (Can we date this quote by Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The slave of an imperious and reckless termagant.

Synonyms

• (quarrelsome woman): See Thesaurus:shrew

Translations

a quarrelsome, scolding woman, especially old and shrewd

• Esperanto: megero
• Japanese: 鬼婆 (ja) (おにばば, oni-baba)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: грубая (grubaja)/сварливая (svarlivaja) же́нщина (žénščina) (grúbaja/svarlívaja žénščina)f, меге́ра (ru) f (megéra)

Adjective

termagant (comparative more termagant, superlative most termagant)

1. Quarrelsome and scolding or censorious; shrewish.
   • 1993, Anthony Burgess, A Dead Man in Deptford:

     These bishops with their termagant wives throw the book at us and say believe because I demand belief and by God I will burn or hang and quarter you if you do not.

Anagrams

• target man