Xanthippe

plural Xanthippes · alternative Xantippe

1. datedderogatoryliteraryAn ill-tempered woman.

   The use he [Socrates] made of his domestic trial may be profitably remembered by any that have a Xanthippe to deal with.

   1870 July, “Socrates. Part I.”, in Dublin University Magazine, a Literary and Political Journal, volume LXXVI, number CCCCLI, Dublin: George Herbert, […]; London: Hurst & Blackett, →OCLC, page 114, column 1

   5 more examples

   Be ſhe as foule as was Florentius Loue, / As old as Sibell, and as curſt and ſhrow'd / As Socrates Zentippe, or a worſe: / She moues me not, or not remoues at leaſt / Affections edge in me.

   [c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 213, column 1

   RICHARD HOOKER, that rare and admirable Theologiſt, [...] married a clowniſh ſilly Woman and withal a meer Xantippe, [...]

   1691, [Anthony Wood], “RICHARD HOOKER”, in Athenæ Oxonienses. An Exact History of All the Writers and Bishops who have had Their Education in the Most Ancient and Famous University of Oxford from the Fifteenth Year of King Henry the Seventh, Dom. 1500, to the End of the Year 1690. […], volume I (Extending to the 16th Year of King Charles I. Dom. 1640), London: […] Tho[mas] Bennet […], →OCLC, column 262

   [page 235] He was prudent and induſtrious, and ſo good a Huſbandman, that he might have led a very eaſy and comfortable Life, had not an errant Vixen of a Wife ſoured his domeſtic Quiet. [...] [page 236] By this Xantippe (ſo was the Wife of Socrates called, ſaid Partridge) By this Xantippe he had two Sons, of which I was the younger.

   1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the Man of the Hill Begins to Relate His History”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VIII, pages 235–236

   Who has not seen the cross looks and peevish temper of the teacher and parent copied, as by a mirror (though we should say without reflection), in the face and disposition of the child? [...] From an unbroken course of such treatment, who would expect any thing but an unbroken line of Nabals and Xanthippes?

   1850 September, W. C. Goldthwait, “Power of Expression”, in W. W. Mitchell, editor, The Massachusetts Teacher, volume III, number 9, Boston, Mass.: Samuel Coolidge, […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 286

   What have we seen in our own personal walks through life to make us believe that women are devils? There may possibly have been a Xantippe here and there, but Imogenes are to be found under every bush.

   1858, Anthony Trollope, “Louis Scatcherd”, in Doctor Thorne. […], volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 185–186

   Synonyms: battle axe, bitch, brim, brimstone, cat, cockatrice, crow, dragon