virago \vuh-RAH-go; vuh-RAY-go\, noun:
1. A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage.
2. A woman regarded as loud, scolding, ill-tempered, quarrelsome, or overbearing.
The intrepid heroines range from Unn the Deep Minded, the Viking virago who colonized Iceland, to Sue Hendrikson, a school dropout who became one of the great experts on amber, fossils and shipwrecks.
- -- Ann Prichard, "Coffee-table: Africa, Cathedrals, Animals, 'Sue'", USA Today, November 28, 2001
This virago, this madwoman, finally got to me, and I was subjected to the most rude, the most shocking violence I can remember.
- -- José Limón, An Unfinished Memoir
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Virago comes from Latin virago, "a man-like woman, a female warrior, a heroine" from vir, "a man."
