I thought a termagant was a bird...

It rolls pretty easily off my tongue, so I'll take care of the reclaiming up here in Canada.

Ah yes, JP, I believe you're thinking of a 'ptarmigan', which is indeed a bird. (PS - I love words with a silent 'p').

I think it would roll easier if the stress was on the "ma" and not the "ter." TERmagant sounds like some sort of cleaning agent. terMAgant just sounds funny.

And do people really still use the word shrew to refer to women? That's so archaic.

ah, man i've LOVED that word since 12th grade English(my teacher really identified with The Taming Of The Shrew's Katherine) ...honestly, though, i'd rather be called that than "cunt" or "bitch"...

I love the word shrew!
And yes, it is because Katherine is such an awesome character in Taming of the Shrew.

Even better, here's the etymology (from the American Heritage Dictionary): From Middle English Termagaunt, imaginary Muslim deity portrayed as a violent and overbearing character in medieval mystery plays, alteration of Tervagant, from Old French.

Dictionary.com further elaborates that Termagant was portrayed as a 'violent, overbearing personage in long robes.'

I think I somehow mentally mated 'ptarmigan' with 'cormorant' and ended up with a nest of hungry 'termagants'.

Whatever happened to harridan or harpy?

What do I get if I work the word 'termagant' into the paper I'm writing?

Wow, etymology bonus: the paper's about a Canadian woman poet's experiments with an ancient Islamic (well, Persian) form... which traditionally was about a frigid but godly woman/lover.

I'll put you in my works cited.

Wow, just when you think you have enough words to describe the multitude of negative attributes associated with women, you find out what you've been missing.

Norbizness, I love the word "harridan." I use it all the time.

Aren't half the shrews in the world male? ;)

There definitely needs to be a blog called Tirades of a Termagant

I did a whole blog post on old words like this here. I think my favorite word was "cover-slut" (a woman who hides her sexuality under a veneer of respectability). Petticoat government is another of cool historic term, too.

Shrew, harridan, bitch, witch, termagant.... Are there any gender-specific words to describe annoying men? Asshole doesn't count....

(Note: I was being flip and using "witch" as a perjorative, not the way I would use it seriously in everyday life)

Ummmmm... tosser? git? I'm coming up with lots of chiefly British slang, most of it probably out of fashion.

We should be fair here. Let's try dick, prick and son of a bitch, though the last one is kind of mixed.

There's also dickhead. And douche is used predominately towards males, but seeing how a douche is used, that's also kind of an insult towards women (and it's a word that I must confess I am very guilty of using).

So there are a few. But there are definitely a LOT more words that are deragatory towards women-- and unlike terms for males, which are mostly slang, a lot of the insulting words to describe women are considered to be official parts of language (like "shrew").

To me it seems like it would work better as an adjective than a noun. "You're being so turmagant" sounds better to me than "You're such a turmagant."

Oh, harridan. I used to love that word. Termagant just doesn't flow for me, so I know I'll be too lazy to claim it back. My faves for men: wanker, prick, dickhead, teenypeeny (my two year old came up with that, but I really like it).

The only place I heard this word before is as a class of Tyranid monsters in Warhammer 40.000

I've always been font of dragon... that's another one that only seems to be applied to women. I like termagant though.

for men... wanker, arse... yes, mostly slang or swear-words. And body-parts, strangely.

the derogatory insults towards men do not have the same power and venom to silence a crowded room as many derogatory towards women.

In fact I know of men who would be strangely proud of being called wankers, arseholes or dick heads, because it would mean that they have offended someone or hurt someones feelings.

How about cad, prat, or the like, if we want to get into British/19th century slang?

Cuckold, pansy, fairy all apply to men (and not really women).

Robin Williams said that God gave men two heads but only enough blood to run one at a time, which may explain the plethora of male-anatomy slang.