Etymology
Borrowed from Latin virāgō (“warlike or heroic woman”, literally “manlike”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /vɪˈɹɑːɡəʊ/
- Hyphenation: vi‧ra‧go
Noun
virago (plural viragos or viragoes)
- A woman given to undue belligerence or ill manner at the slightest provocation.
- Synonyms: shrew, termagant; see also Thesaurus:shrew
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361:Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part. Thus outraged, she showed herself to be a bold as well as a furious virago. Next day she found her way to their lodgings and tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head.
1964, Anthony Burgess, chapter III, in Nothing Like the Sun:Joan was all Arden, grinning there, siding with her virago mother.
- A woman who is scolding, domineering, or highly opinionated.
- Synonyms: shrew; see also Thesaurus:shrew
- A woman who is rough, loud, and aggressive.
Translations
rough woman
- Bulgarian: мъжкарана f (mǎžkarana)
- Catalan: virago f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: please add this translation if you can
- Czech: dračice (cs) f
- Danish: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: äkäpussi (fi), amatsoni (fi), virago
- French: virago (fr) f
- Georgian: ანჩხლი დედაკაცი (ančxli dedaḳaci), ჭირვეული (č̣irveuli)
- German: Flintenweib n, Virago f, Mannweib (de) n, Zänkerin (de) f, Krawallnudel f (colloquial)
- Hungarian: cserfes nő
- Irish: ainscian mná f, maistín (mná) m, ropaire mná m, stiúireachán mná m, báirseach f, rálach f
- Italian: virago (it) f
- Portuguese: virago (pt) f
- Russian: бо́й-ба́ба (ru) f (bój-bába)
- Serbo-Croatian: muškarača (sh) f, nadžak-baba (sh) f
- Spanish: virago (es) f
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Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /viˈra.ɡo/
- Rhymes: -aɡo
- Hyphenation: vi‧rà‧go
Etymology
From vir (“man”) + -āgō.
References
- “virago”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “virago”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- virago in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- virago in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.