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virago|vɪˈrɑːgəʊ, vɪˈreɪgəʊ|
Also 6 virragoo, 7 ver-, vyr-, firago.
[a. L. virāgo a man-like or heroic woman, a female warrior, etc., f. vir man. Hence also OF., F., and Sp. virago.]
†1. Woman. (Only as the name given by Adam to Eve, after the Vulgate rendering of Gen. ii. 23.)
c1000ælfric Hom. I. 14 Beo hire nama Uirago, þæt is, fæmne, forðan ðe heo is of hire were ᵹenumen. a1300Cursor M. 633 Virago gaf he hir to nam; þar for hight sco virago, for maked o þe man was sco. 1388Wyclif Gen. ii. 23 And Adam seide..This schal be clepid virago, for she is takun of man. 1483Caxton Gold. Leg. 37 b/1, And Adam gaf here a name lyke as her lord and said, she shal be called Virago, whiche is as moche to saye as made of a man and is a name taken of a man. a1500Chester Pl. i. 150 Shee shalbe called, I wisse, Viragoo, nothing amisse, For out of man tacken shee is. 1547Boorde Brev. Health ccxlii. 82 b, First when a woman was made of God she was named Virago because she dyd come of a man. 1576Gascoigne Droome Doomes Day i. ⁋6 Before Eva sinned, she was called Virago, and after she sinned she deserved to be called Eva.
2. a. A man-like, vigorous, and heroic woman; a female warrior; an amazon. Now rare.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 413 The strong virage [L. virago potentissima] Elfleda..halp moche her broþer þe kyng in ȝevynge of counsaile. a1513Fabyan Chron. vi. clxxx. (1811) 178 Elfleda,..this noble venqueresse Virago and made, whose vertue can I nat expresse. 1513Douglas æneid xii. viii. 56 The mynd..Of Juturna, the verray virago; Quhilk term to expone, be myne avis, Is a woman exersand a mannis office. 1553Eden Treat. New Ind. (Arb.) 24 One of his wiues..decketh her selfe moste gorgiously..and procedeth like a Virago stoutly and cherefully to the fire, where the corps of her husbande was burnte. 1582Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 34 No swarms or trouping horsmen can apale the virago. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 383 This Sultan presented him with the head of that Virago Periaconcona vpon the top of a Launce. a1641Bp. R. Montagu A. & M. (1642) 361 Shee so ruled as Queene eight yeers and better: a man-like virago of a stout and noble spirit. 1677W. Hubbard Narrative (1865) II. 20 That young Virago kept the door fast against them. 1712–4Pope Rape Lock v. 37 To arms! to arms! the fierce virago cries, And swift as lightening to the combate flies. 1781Cowper Let. 5 Mar., And as to the neutralities, I really think the Russian virago an impertinent puss for meddling with us. 1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. xi, Did not the same virago boast that she had a Cavalry Regiment, whereof neither horse nor man could be injured. 188519th Cent. May 472 She [Vittoria Colonna] was a virago, a name which, however misapprehended now, bore a different and worthy signification in her day.
†b. Applied to a man. Obs. rare.
c1600Day Begg. Bednall Gr. iv. i. (1881) 78 Come then, my mad Viragoes,..now I'll turn swaggerer myself. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 300 Why man, hee's a verie diuell, I haue not seen such a firago... They say, he has bin Fencer to the Sophy.
3. A bold, impudent († or wicked) woman; a termagant, a scold.
c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 359 O Sowdanesse, roote of Iniquitee, Virago, thou Semyrame the secounde [etc.]. 1680C. Nesse Ch. Hist. 178 God sets this black brand upon this virago Jezabel. 1724Swift Quiet Life Wks. 1755 IV. i. 48 He saw virago Nell belabour, With Dick's own staff, his peaceful neighbour. 1770Burke Corr. (1844) I. 230 No heroine in Billingsgate can go beyond the patriotic scolding of our republican virago. 1838J. Grant Sk. Lond. 175 It now devolved on her to act the part of a wife who played both the tyrant and virago at home. 1865Trollope Belton Est. xxvii. 329, I believe Lady Aylmer to be an overbearing virago, whom it is good to put down. 1891C. Roberts Adrift Amer. 90 Three women—a mother and two daughters. These were the greatest viragoes I ever saw.
transf.1713J. Warder True Amazons (ed. 2) 23 But the Numbers are not great of these forward Viragos [= young bees]. 1793G. White Selborne lii, Every hen is in her turn the virago of the yard.
4. a. attrib., chiefly appositive, as virago family, virago girl, virago heroine, etc.; also virago-strain.
1598Florio, Brifalda, a..mankinde, virago woman. 1621J. Taylor (Water P.) Superb. Flagellum C vi, Like shamelesse double sex'd Hermaphrodites, Virago Roaring Girles. 1639G. Daniel Vervic. 161 But the Virago Queen..doth aggravate Th' aggreived Lords. 1746Francis tr. Hor., Sat. i. i. 131 But a bold wench, of right virago strain, Cleft with an axe the wretched wight in twain. 1760–2Goldsm. Cit. W. lxii, Petticoated philosophers, blustering heroines, or virago queens. a1843Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. (1851) I. 470 Edward III's queen Philippa was of a virago family. 1862Ansted Channel Isl. 360 Montfort was taken prisoner; his countess, one of the virago heroines of the time, was besieged in Hennebon. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn i, If she had not made Galba and his virago-mother feel the weight of her vengeance, it was only because they were too insignificant.
b. Comb., as virago-like.
1602Marston Ant. & Mel. Induct., Wks. 1856 I. 4 An Amazon should have such a voice, virago-like. 1615R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 92 He doth renew his battery, and stands too't, And she, Vyrago-like, yeelds not a foote.
Hence viˈragoish a., somewhat resembling, or characteristic of, a virago; viˈragoship, the character of a virago.
1666Killigrew Siege of Urbin i. ii, How shall we answer at the Resurrection? for our Viragoships? for our own, and others blood, thus shed! 1887E. Berdoe St. Bernard's 288 The over-dressed, robust, viragoish lady patient. 1888Lady D. Hardy Dang. Exper. I. iii. 59 Mrs. Brown's rather viragoish, coarse-featured face. |