- termagant (n.)
- c. 1500, "violent, overbearing person" (especially of women), from Teruagant, Teruagaunt (c. 1200), name of a fictitious Muslim deity appearing in medieval morality plays, from Old French Tervagant, a proper name in Chanson de Roland (c. 1100), of uncertain origin. As an adjective from 1590s.
