termagant
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɜːməɡ(ə)nt/
ipa: /ˈtɜɹməɡənt/
Forms: form: termagants
form: termigant
Etymology: PIE word
 *tréyes
The noun is derived from Termagant (“fictitious deity with a violent temperament represented as being worshipped by Muslims or other non-Christians”), from Middle English Termagaunt (“fictitious deity represented as being worshipped by Muslims; any pagan god”), from Anglo-Norman Tervagant, Tervagaunt, Tervagan, and Old French Tervagant, Tervagan (possibly with the addition of Anglo-Norman -aunt, Old French -ant (suffix forming present participles of verbs, some of which were used as nouns); modern French Tervagant (historical)); further etymology uncertain, one common suggestion being that it is from Latin ter (“three times, thrice”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes (“three”)) + vagāns (“rambling, wandering”) (the present active participle of vagor (“to ramble, roam, wander”), from vagus (“rambling, roaming, wandering”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *Hwogos) + -or (inflected form of -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). Medieval French chansons de geste named Termagant as one of three deities supposedly worshipped by Muslims, the others being Apollin and Mahound, and the name may allude to the wandering of the moon (the crescent moon being a common symbol of Islam) in the form of the mythological goddesses Selene in heaven, Diana on earth, and Proserpina in the underworld.
The reason for the shift in meaning from the fictitious deity to a brawling and turbulent person is unclear.
The adjective is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: […] I do not find hovv his E[xcellenc]y can be juſtly cenſured for favouring none but High-Church, High-flyers, Termagants, Laudiſts, Sacheverellians, Tip-top-gallon-men, Jacobites, Tantivyes, Anti-Hannoverians, Friends to Popery and the Pretender, and to Arbitrary Povver, […]
ref: 1730, [Jonathan Swift], A Vindication of His Excellency the Lord C[artere]t, from the Charge of Favouring None but Tories, High-Churchmen and Jacobites. […], London: […] [William Bowyer] for T. Warner […], →OCLC, page 27:
text: [T]wo raw lads from a certain great manufacturing town […] were in the act of seeking for the speediest exit from the gardens; rather choosing to resign their share of the dinner, than to abide the farther consequences that might follow from the displeasure of his Highland Termagaunt.
ref: 1823 December 23 (indicated as 1824), [Walter Scott], “Perplexities”, in St Ronan’s Well. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 196:
text: No person who had a natural interest in the Princess [Anne, Queen of Great Britain] could observe without uneasiness the strange infatuation which made her the slave of an imperious and reckless termagant [Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough].
ref: 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XV, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 564:
text: Yonder is Sarah Marlborough's palace, just as it stood when that termagant occupied it.
ref: 1861 November, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “George the Third”, in The Four Georges: Sketches of Manners, Morals, Court, and Town Life, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 112:
text: 'Mrs Kane has been filling us in on some background information on Owen.' The woman nodded, drumming her nicotined fingers. 'And I have been assuring her that the boys who arrive here thimbleriggers and termagants are the least of our worries. But we do not send them out that way. Do we, Brother?'
ref: 1980, Bernard Mac Laverty, chapter 6, in Lamb (King Penguin), Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1985, →OCLC, page 50:
glosses: A brawling, boisterous, and turbulent person or thing.
examples: text: They [authors] would not suffer the stout'st Dame, / To swear by Hercules his Name, / Make feeble Ladies, in their Works, / To fight like Termagants and Turks; […]
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 38:
text: This Girl is ſo exceſſively ill-bred, and ſuch an arrant Termagant, that I cou'd as ſoon fall in love vvith a Tigreſs. She hath a handſom Face, 'tis true, but in her Temper ſhe is a very Fury.
ref: a. 1733 (date written), [John] Gay, Achilles. An Opera. […], London: […] J[ohn] Watts […], published 1733, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, page 27:
text: [T]he Widow Chupin […] poured forth a torrent of invective upon Gevrol and his agents, accusing them of persecuting her family […] At first the General tried to impose silence upon the terrible termagant; but he soon discovered that he was powerless; besides all his subordinates were laughing.
ref: 1894, Émile Gaboriau, chapter 1, in Laura E. Kendall, transl., Monsieur Lecoq […], volume I, New York, N.Y.: Peter Fenelon Collier, →OCLC, page 15:
text: The name of Xanthippe, the wife of Socrates, has become proverbial for a termagant.
ref: 1907, Plato, “[Index] Σωκράτης, -ους”, in Isaac Flagg, editor, The Apology and Crito, New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Oh.: American Book Company, →OCLC, page 196, column 2:
text: 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.
ref: 1970, Robertson Davies, “The Soirée of Illusions”, in Fifth Business […], Toronto, Ont.: Macmillan of Canada, →ISBN, section 3, page 282:
synonyms: word: battle axe
word: bitch
word: brim
word: brimstone
word: cat
word: crow
word: dragon
word: faggot
word: fishwife
word: harpy
word: harridan
word: hellcat
word: jade
word: nag
word: nudnik
word: scold
word: she-devil
word: shrew
word: termagant
word: virago
word: vixen
word: witch
glosses: A censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome woman; a scold, a shrew.
Derived terms: termagancy
termagantish
termagantism
termagantly