termagant

Definition

A brawling, boisterous, and turbulent person or thing.

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.

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]."