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Joined: Mar 2001
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journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 76 |
I love this word so much that a friend made me a t-shirt embellished with it. I found it, appropriately enough, while playing dictionary with a 10-year-old girlfriend. According to the old dictionary we were using it means "an impudent or mischievous girl or woman." I like it because there are lots of words that describe men with these characteristics, but so few for women. When I asked around if anyone else had heard of this word, the two or three who had thought it meant slut!
So, I'd like to redeem and resusitate this forgotten gem, and encourage hoydens everywhere. Hoyden power!
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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BlanchePatch > "an impudent or mischievous girl or woman."
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Hurrah! A great word. Much better than "tom boy" which isn't appropriate for the older set. The T-shirt emblazoned "Runs with scissors" comes close but Hoyden is spot on.
Proudly hoydenish
wow
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Interestin;g though the etymology says it is related to heathen, and does not specify gender. But I guess there was a need for a gender specific word . Tomboys and hoydens are appealing, and now don't have to combat stifling restrictive prim mothers as much as they used to. I have known many mothers who bitterly resented the freedoms their daughters had.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Faldage: I think you will wait a long time before you see VIRAGO on a T shirt. Though we all know some females for whom it would be appropriate. Fortunately none of them visit our board.
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Fortunately, none of them visit our board.
oh? there are two senses for the word virago. (YCLIU)
here are some 'women' from the wwftd files:
beldam - an old woman, esp an ugly one: hag
cuckquean - a woman whose husband is unfaithful
doxy - a woman of loose morals: prostitute; mistress
fustilugs - a ponderous clumsy person, esp. a fat and slovenly woman
gammerstang - a tall, awkward person, usu. a woman
harridan - an ill-tempered scolding woman: shrew
hoyden - woman of saucy, boisterous or carefree behavior
inamorata - a woman with whom one is in love or has intimate relations
maenad - a woman participant in orgiastic Dionysian rites
malkin - [Brit] 1) an untidy woman: slattern; 2) cat; hare
parvenue - a woman who is a parvenu
rudas - [Scot] a hideous, vile and loathsome old woman
sylph - a slender graceful woman or girl
termagant - shrew; hard, overbearing woman
viraginity - masculine characteristics in a woman (leading to...)
virago - a woman of great stature, strength and courage; a loud overbearing woman
Xanthippe - [Socrate's scolding wife] any nagging, peevish or irritable woman
and, just for fun, here is a very useless(?) word from the collection:
tragolimia - in a man, an overwhelming and indiscriminate urge to have sex with any woman, regardless of her looks or age
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Thanks, tsuwm. I have long wondered at the complementary term for "cuckold."
And as to "tragolimia" - in a man, an overwhelming and indiscriminate urge to have sex with any woman, regardless of her looks or age - I'm not gonna say it.
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I remember a story about Sam Johnson's getting fish wife furious just by calling her a "gerund" or a similar grammatical term. So while your list is fun to read, I don't know anybody I could apply them to. But now I'm prepared, in any case. Thanks
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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virago - a woman of great stature, strength and courage; a loud overbearing woman
I suspect the latter definition is mostly a result of a wapman's (YCLIU) fear of women who refuse to be considered second class. There is a movement afoot among some feminists (feminist: one who holds the radical notion that women are human beings) to use the word hag in a positive sense.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'm not gonna say itCome here and whisper it in my ear 
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