virago
noun/vɪˈɹɑːɡəʊ/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin virāgō (“warlike or heroic woman”, literally “manlike”).
1
A woman given to undue belligerence or ill manner at the slightest provocation.
- 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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 361:
- Joan was all Arden, grinning there, siding with her virago mother.1964, Anthony Burgess, chapter III, in Nothing Like the Sun:
2
A woman who is scolding, domineering, or highly opinionated.
3
A woman who is rough, loud, and aggressive.
- Derived terms
- viraginian, viraginity, viraginous, virago sleeve
- Related terms
- virtue