Make Your Point: VIRAGO

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pronounce VIRAGO:

"vuh ROG oh."

Or, if you prefer, "vuh RAY go."

connect this word to others:

Here's the narrator in Great Expectations, introducing the virago Mrs. Joe:

"My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had brought me up 'by hand.' Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.
She was not a good-looking woman, my sister; and I had a general impression that she must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand."

So there we have a virago: a woman who's harsh, violent, and domineering.

But a virago was originally a powerful warrior woman.

Today you can use either meaning of the word, which might confuse your listeners if you don't give them enough context. The same goes for the word peruse. It also has two completely different meanings. Can you recall them?

definition:

We took "virago" straight from Latin, where it meant "a heroine: a warrior woman," tracing back further to vir, meaning "man."

A form of "virago" first showed up in Old English, in Genesis 2:23 of the Wycliffe Bible, where Adam, referring to Eve, said she "is now a bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this shall be called virago, for she is taken (out) of man." (In other versions of the Bible, "virago" is translated as "woman" instead.)

Over the centuries, "virago" has come to mean "a masculine woman, or a powerful woman, especially one who's a strong fighter."

But since at least the 1600s, "virago" has also taken on an insulting meaning: "a loud, obnoxious, violent, demanding, or controlling woman." This meaning is more common today, though some folks have tried to reclaim the original meaning.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "Carol Burnett played the virago Miss Hannigan in 1982's Annie."

Other forms:

The plural is "viragos," as in "James endures life with his aunts, two viragos who have nothing better to do than abuse him, in James and the Giant Peach."

If you need an adjective, there's "virago-like" and "viragoish," both rare.

And there's a rare noun for the condition or quality of being a virago: "viragoship."

how to use it:

Carefully! It's not a curse word, but it can be used to insult women. Or elevate them, so context is everything.

It's rare, scholarly, and potentially offensive, so pick the word "virago" if you're pretty sure your listeners will be able to tell whether you mean "obnoxious shrew" or "formidable warrior."

The safest way to use it is to describe fictional characters.

examples:

"[Anne Jackson in a performance of The Waltz of the Toreadors] is an awesome virago who delivers her lines like bayonet thrusts."
— T. E. Kalem, Time, 24 September 1973

"Opponents, writers and pundits have looked to Shakespeare for words to describe [Hillary Clinton]. People think 'she’s a tough little termagant in a pantsuit', according to one columnist, drawing on a word for an overbearing woman that has Shakespearean roots. 'The virago of Pennsylvania Avenue,' wrote another in the 1990s, an insult Sir Toby uses in Twelfth Night."
— Karen Blumenthal, The Guardian, 13 January 2016

has this page helped you understand "virago"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain both meanings of "virago" without saying "shrew" or "female fighter."

try it out:

"Virago," as you've probably noticed, is controversial.

On the one hand, it's been used in eye-wateringly offensive ways, like when the anti-suffragist Ernest Bernbaum wrote that women who wanted the right to vote were "viragos" who "tempted [other] women to abandon real womanliness for mock masculinity."

But on the other, it's been reclaimed by speakers like Amanda Robinson, the founder of Virago Alley, who recasts viragos as women who find "strength in living as their true selves... emboldened to test infinite boundaries."

With all that in mind, is there a place for the word "virago" in your own vocabulary? Why or why not?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Make Your Point Before & After!

I'll give you a clue, and you give me a verbal mashup including at least one word or phrase we've studied before.

For example, if I give you "It's the kind of theatrical stage setting that encourages the actors to radically overact," then you give me "mise en scenery chewing," a mashup of "mise en scene" and "scenery chewing."

Try this one today: It's the kind of chicken you make when you're home alone, with no one there to complain about the grease, or kibitz about the spices you picked, or give you the side eye for polishing off the entire batch yourself.

To reveal the first two hints, highlight the hidden white text.

Hint 1: The number of words in this Before & After is... two.

Hint 2: The first word in this Before & After is... too big of a hint, but the first letters are STU.

Hint 3: Use this term.

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. A near opposite of a VIRAGO could be

A. a HAM.
B. a DOORMAT.
C. a LOOSE CANNON.

2. In a novel by Eliza Buckminster Lee, a character rumored to be a virago shows up and, sure enough, _____.

A. slips on an actual banana peel
B. meets the devil in the woods at midnight
C. shouts at a young woman and demands to know why she's crying

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > VIRAGO

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