PRONUNCIATION:
(TER-muh-guhnt)
MEANING:
noun: A quarrelsome or overbearing woman.ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French Tervagant. The term originates after an imaginary deity that Christians in medieval Europe erroneously believed was worshiped by Muslims. It was represented in morality plays as a violent, overbearing personage. Over time the term became generalized to apply to any brawling person, and eventually only to women.
USAGE:
"[Mrs. Lincoln], the wife of one of our most beloved presidents, has been characterized as a sharp-tongued termagant who made her husband's life miserable."
Larry Eskridge; The Tragedy of Mary Lincoln; The Daily Ledger (Canton, Illinois); May 16, 2009.
Explore "termagant" in the Visual Thesaurus.
(From
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg)I think mr. kenju would agree with this definition and I know who he'd be likely to hang it on.
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About two weeks ago, he got a haircut which looked okay right after, but the next day, our daughter said...."Daddy, when are you going to get a haircut?" His curly hair grows very fast in the summer anyway, and add to that the stimulus of his daily vitamins, he often "looks like some guy named Luigi who just landed off the boat." Today was chosen for the next haircut, and I voiced the opinion that I should go in with him and tell the stylist to cut it shorter this time. He didn't want me to say that (he'd feel like a ten year old boy and I'd come very close to being the definition above), so I let him off in front of the shop and parked close by to read my current novel. So far - so good - but we'll see what tomorrow brings. Of course, the stylist didn't take the blame for not cutting his hair short enough. She blamed it all on summer heat and vitamins.
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While I was parked there, I noticed an older woman sitting in the back seat of the car parked nose-to-nose with mine. After we had been there for about ten minutes, she got out of the car and started walking around rather aimlessly. She did that for 2-3 minutes, then she got into the front seat of the car, then out again immediately and walked around some more. She stopped behind the car 2 spaces down and appeared to be studying the license plate (or maybe a bumper sticker). When the man who owned that car came back, she engaged him in conversation and it was soon obvious that he wanted to leave. I couldn't hear any of what they were saying, but she was smiling and animated. As soon as he left, she got back into the car for a mere minute and back out again to walk in the parking lot. She didn't go far, but I was worried about her getting into the path of cars. As mr. kenju returned to our car, she got in the back seat of her car again and shut the door. I wondered if I should ask her if everything was okay - but I said nothing and drove off. What would you have done? Do you think I should have asked her if she was waiting for someone or tried to find out where her driver was?
Last week, after I complained about the slow-as-molasses machine that is my computer, I got advice from some of you helpful people. Most of it had already been done, but then I realized that it had been a while since I upgraded my adware program. So I downloaded an upgrade and ran the program. It took over an hour, but it found a Trojan - to be specific - Trojan.WOW.mo (whatever that means). Since I got rid of that, the computer has run a little better, but not much. When my BIL was here, I told him of our possible thoughts of adding memory. He advised against it in a computer that is rapidly approaching six years old. We have another computer that isn't used very often, so I may switch to that one. The problem is that there are many files on this one that would need to be transferred to the other one, and I am sort of clueless on how to do that. Plus I wonder if we transfer all the files, wouldn't that make the other computer have overloaded memory too?
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Last week, after I complained about the slow-as-molasses machine that is my computer, I got advice from some of you helpful people. Most of it had already been done, but then I realized that it had been a while since I upgraded my adware program. So I downloaded an upgrade and ran the program. It took over an hour, but it found a Trojan - to be specific - Trojan.WOW.mo (whatever that means). Since I got rid of that, the computer has run a little better, but not much. When my BIL was here, I told him of our possible thoughts of adding memory. He advised against it in a computer that is rapidly approaching six years old. We have another computer that isn't used very often, so I may switch to that one. The problem is that there are many files on this one that would need to be transferred to the other one, and I am sort of clueless on how to do that. Plus I wonder if we transfer all the files, wouldn't that make the other computer have overloaded memory too?
12 comments:
I have the same sort of problems computer wise and will follow your action with interest.
With regard to the lady - being nosey I may well have exchanged a pleasantry to encourage her to talk. On the other hand if I had my termagent hat on I'd have kept mum.
Sounds like the lady was waiting for someone but had little idea of the time - perhaps she was a confused person. Asking her might have made her more confused, but there again, who knows? I hope she was OK, anyway.
Termagents sound horrid - I don't know anyone like that! ;)
i suggest the memory addition. we just did that to my 3-4 year old laptop, cleaned it up, ran the spyware program again even though it is on a regular automated schedule, purged dead and unnecessary files, un-installed programs i don't use, and defragged. this baby works like a dream again!
the woman you mentioned sounds like she was totally miserable in the car. maybe her legs were cramping. it is hard to know what to do in that kind of situation.
i am sure i am a termagant. :(
Being a fairly passive person, termagents scare the crap out of me. Wish I could be just a bit more like one.
I would have talked to the woman to see if there was a problem and also to help entertain during the wait for Mr. I have an over blown "friendly rescue" attitude.
New computers are cheap, as long as you forgo the bells and whistles. My current one only cost around $250. Transferring files is easy with a backup drive. They cost around $50-80 for a 500GB drive. And generally having a lot on your HD won't slow things much. As long as you keep it defragged and at least 10% open.
As for the woman, stay away from bored people is my motto. They talk too much.
As for the woman, I think she was just keeping herself busy while waiting for the driver to return.
Backup your files to an external drive. this will help in two ways, you have your important files off a system that may go belly up on you and secondly, you can transfer the file to another machine easily. I would suggest rebuilding the other machine. Sometimes, refreshing the system will get rid of any trash and speed the system up. The problem is windoze just doesn't work good and keeping itself clean. Too many memory leaks and they keep creating more. This evetually starts slowing the system down. If you are running XP with less that 1GB of ram, there is not going to be much of a speed difference increase. Systems more than five years are so far obsolete it's not worth the investment to add more memory. If you are looking for a replacement, talk to Citizen X. She keeps up with all the new stuff. Her site is tanjents.com
I have been doing my husband's hair (all one length!) for a few years now, so he simply has to be very, very nice to me :)
Wish you the best in solving your pc issues, my son once saved all my pictures in an external memory device. It means I have to turn it on if I want to see old pictures, but it isn't a long procedure.
my computer has been sort of off for a while now. it is getting on in age but i hate the thought of having to transfer everything and get used to a new computer.
Umm, that word...me
the old lady? if it had looked like she was going to get into trouble, you would have done the right thing....she probably just need some fresh air.
I didn't realize that "termagent" was so specific to women...! Hmmmmm, I'm not sure I like that, at all. That word is used in one of the poems from SPOON RIVER. Now, I am going to have to take a look at it and see if the male character is referring to a women...I just don't remember....
As to the lady in the parking lot, I think I might not have ended up talking with her though part of me would want to....I hate to admit it, but it sounded like something complicated was going on with her that I'm not sure I have the skills to hanfle at this point in my life.
I hope the Haircut turns out to be a GOOD one, for Mr. Kenju's sake. LOL! I spoke with Betty and it WILL happen...I'm just not sure when yet. But is more than happy to do it!
I would've gone home and written a short story about her which probably would have made her out to be more interesting than she really was. She actually sounds either a touch demented or bored.
So, I wonder what the word for a "quarrelsome or overbearing man" is......hmpf!
I'm thinking termagent may be synonymous with bitch.
:-)
I don't know what I'd have done about that woman who was wandering the parking lot. It seemed she always went back to her car, so maybe she just got tired of sitting there alone. Obviously, she was somewhat confused or something was a little out of whack, but she was most likely not in danger.
I bet Mr. Kenju's curly locks are one of the things that you find attractive about him. Of course, when they are unruly and he looks like a scruffy feller, then the attractiveness wanes a bit.
Keep your wild mane under control, Mr. Kenju!!
This is Kenju's blog buddy, and I am a raging termagent!!!!
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