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Thursday April 29, 2010

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virago [vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go]

noun

1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.
2. A noisy or scolding or domineering woman.

• And though it's easy to categorize Wilder's view of women as Maggie's domestic virago vs. Sabina's scheming vixen, Scambiatterra explodes that view with a second-act speech in which she calls out her husband for his narrow views of female nature.
  Kerry Reid, "Artistic Home's 'Skin' dazzles; Trap Door revives 'Quarters'", Chicago Tribune, Feb 26, 2010
• Why focus on all that misery, if, like Hannity on Wednesday, you can engage conservative virago Michelle Malkin in a soaring conversation about the Obama administration's "culture of corruption."
  James Rainey, "ON THE MEDIA; CNN does it right in Haiti", Los Angeles Times, Jan 15, 2010
• They can't help themselves that their father chose to marry a virago like their stepmother. More shame to him; no shame to them.'
  Emma Marshall Penshurst Castle (1894)

Origin of the Word

Virago, approximately 1600, derives from Latin virago, "a man-like or heroic woman," from vir "man."