harridan

(hăr'ĭ-dn)
n.
A woman regarded as scolding and vicious.

[Possibly from French haridelle, gaunt woman, old horse, nag.]

(HAR-i-dn)

noun
An ill-tempered, scolding woman.

Etymology
Perhaps from French haridelle (worn-out horse, gaunt woman).

Usage
"For us, the most revealing of the remarks attributed to the Heritage harridan were these: `I will beat you and nothing will happen. You can go to court, all the judges know Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of the (army) commander. The judges will do nothing.'" 'All judges know Jocelyn Chiwenga'; Zimbabwe Independent (Harare); Mar 28, 2003.

"A harridan committee chairwoman, Libby Hauser, acted sneeringly by Dana Ivey, all but tosses bubbly, babbling Elle out of a hearing room." — Malcolm Johnson; `Blonde 2' Is Blithely Bubbly; Hartford Courant (Connecticut); Jul 2, 2003.

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Time magazine columnist Joe Klein hurled the word harridan into our top alt-clicks list with his defense of Hillary Clinton: "she is not even vaguely the left-wing harridan portrayed by the Precambrian right." He nevertheless opined in no uncertain terms that she should not run in the next presidential election.

Link: Hillary in 2008? No Way!

Posted May 9, 2005.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

an ill-tempered scolding woman: shrew

Dansk (Danish)
n. - gammel hejre, furie

Nederlands (Dutch)
afgebeuld paard, ouwe tang

Français (French)
n. - mégère

Deutsch (German)
n. - zänkisches altes Weib

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μέγαιρα, στρίγκλα, γριά

Italiano (Italian)
strega

Português (Portuguese)
n. - mulher (f) velha sombria

Русский (Russian)
старая карга

Español (Spanish)
n. - bruja

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - gammal häxa, ragata

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
丑老太婆, 魔女, 巫婆

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 醜老太婆, 魔女, 巫婆

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 심술 궂은 노파, 마귀할멈

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 醜い老婆, 意地悪ばばあ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عجوز مشاكسه محبه للخصام‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮זקנה זעפנית, מכשפה‬

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