WORD OF THE DAY 5/23/2003
Word of the Day for Friday May 23, 2003
harridan \HAIR-uh-din\, noun:
A scolding, vicious woman; a shrew; a hag.
With the insight of hindsight, I'd have liked to have been
able to protect my mother from the domineering old
harridan, with her rough tongue and primitive sense of
justice, but I did not see it like that, then.
--Angela Carter, [1]Shaking a Leg
Whatever compassion we may feel towards Seraphie, charged
with managing the Beyle household and provided with little
in the way of emotional or material recompense, evidence
scarcely softens Stendhal's portrait of an ignorant,
vindictive, mean-spirited harridan.
--Jonathan Keates, Stendhal
Even before that, for the first year and a half, as reports
and rumors seeped out that she was a harridan, yelling and
throwing things at subordinates as well as at her husband
and his aides, she would often think to herself, 'What's
going on here? Why are some of these people slandering me
or my husband on a daily basis? Why is all this stuff
happening?'
--David Maraniss, 'First Lady of Paradox,' [2]Washington
Post January 15, 1995
As the vulgar, scornful, desperate Martha, Miss Hagen makes
a tormented harridan horrifyingly believable.
--Howard Taubman, 'The Theater: Albee's 'Who's Afraid','
[3]New York Times, October 15, 1962
__________________________________________
Harridan probably comes from French haridelle, 'a worn-out
horse, a gaunt woman.'
harridan \HAIR-uh-din\, noun:
A scolding, vicious woman; a shrew; a hag.
With the insight of hindsight, I'd have liked to have been
able to protect my mother from the domineering old
harridan, with her rough tongue and primitive sense of
justice, but I did not see it like that, then.
--Angela Carter, [1]Shaking a Leg
Whatever compassion we may feel towards Seraphie, charged
with managing the Beyle household and provided with little
in the way of emotional or material recompense, evidence
scarcely softens Stendhal's portrait of an ignorant,
vindictive, mean-spirited harridan.
--Jonathan Keates, Stendhal
Even before that, for the first year and a half, as reports
and rumors seeped out that she was a harridan, yelling and
throwing things at subordinates as well as at her husband
and his aides, she would often think to herself, 'What's
going on here? Why are some of these people slandering me
or my husband on a daily basis? Why is all this stuff
happening?'
--David Maraniss, 'First Lady of Paradox,' [2]Washington
Post January 15, 1995
As the vulgar, scornful, desperate Martha, Miss Hagen makes
a tormented harridan horrifyingly believable.
--Howard Taubman, 'The Theater: Albee's 'Who's Afraid','
[3]New York Times, October 15, 1962
__________________________________________
Harridan probably comes from French haridelle, 'a worn-out
horse, a gaunt woman.'
