termagant
/ˈtɜɹməɡənt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.40 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having the temperament of a termagant (noun sense 1); bad-tempered, brawling, boisterous, turbulent.
Archaic
adj
Of a woman, her behaviour, etc.: censorious, nagging, and quarrelsome; scolding, shrewish.
Derogatory
name
A fictitious deity with a violent temperament who featured in medieval mystery plays, represented as being worshipped by Muslims or (less commonly) other non-Christians.
Archaic
Example Sentences
- "[…] 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, […]"
- "[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."
- "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]."
- "Yonder is Sarah Marlborough's palace, just as it stood when that termagant occupied it."
- "'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?'"
- "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; […]"
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɜɹməɡənt/
- British English: /ˈtɜːməɡ(ə)nt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
termagants (plural)
termigant (alternative)
more termagant (comparative)
most termagant (superlative)