I really like A Word A Day. It's a great site. Today's word really hit home for some reason.
Xanthippe or Xantippe
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
noun: A nagging, ill-tempered woman.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Xanthippe, wife of Socrates (c. 5 BCE) who has been portrayed as a nagging, quarrelsome woman. The name Xanthippe is from xanthos (yellow) + hippos (horse). Also see xanthodontous. Earliest documented use: 1691.
NOTES:
Socrates is said to have advised, "By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." It's not known what Socrates thought would happen if the roles were reversed. Also, there's the question of which came first: philosophizing or being ill-tempered. Would being married to a philosopher turn a woman into a shrew?
USAGE:
Mistress Foster is a grasping shrew, a Xanthippe, who bosses her husband about."
Jean Howard; Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy; University of Pennsylvania Press; 2009.
Jean Howard; Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy; University of Pennsylvania Press; 2009.
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