Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Harridan |
HarridanNoun1. A scolding (even vicious) old woman. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "harridan" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1838. (references) |
Etymology: Harridan \Har"ri*dan\, noun. [French expression haridelle worn-out horse, jade.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Harridan A haggard old beldame. So called from the French haridelle, a worn-out jade of a horse. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Slang in 1811 | HARRIDAN. A hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy, worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd's degree: derived from the French word HARIDELLE, a worn-out jade of a horse or mare. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Libertine | Adulteress, advoutress, courtesan, prostitute, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie; woman, woman of the town; streetwalker, Cyprian, miss, piece; frail sisterhood; demirep, wench, trollop, trull, baggage, hussy, drab, bitch, jade, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, minx, harridan; unfortunate, unfortunate female, unfortunate woman; woman of easy virtue; (unchaste); wanton, fornicatress; Jezebel, Messalina, Delilah, Thais, Phryne, Aspasia, Lais, lorette, cocotte, petite dame, grisette; demimonde; chippy; sapphist; spiritual wife; white slave. |
Ugliness | Eyesore, object, witch, hag, figure, sight, fright; monster; dog, woofer, pig; octopus, specter, scarecrow, harridan, satyr, toad, monkey, baboon, Caliban, Aesop, "monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum". |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | Well there was one old lady, and a drunken old harridan she was surely, that paid all her attention to me. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Harridan" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 95.83% of the time. "Harridan" is used about 24 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 95.83% | 23 | 72,767 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.17% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 24 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
harridan | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "harridan"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | telendare (virago), plakë gërnjare (grimalkin). (various references) | |
Arabic | عجوز شكسة, إمراة عجوز. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | стара вещица, брантия. (various references) | |
Czech | babizna (crone, hag). (various references) | |
French | vieille harpie (hag, old harpy). (various references) | |
Greek | γριά μέγαιρα, γύναιο. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מכשפ" (hag, sorceress, witch), מרשעת (harpy, shrew, termagant, virago). (various references) | |
Hungarian | vén boszorkány (grimalkin, hag), satrafa (scold), banya (crone, frump, witch). (various references) | |
Italian | strega (hag, hex, sorceress, witch), megera (beldame, jezebel, shrew, termagant, virago, vixen, Xanthippe). (various references) | |
Manx | shenn-chaillagh (gammer, geezer). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | arridanhay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | prostituta (bitch, call girl, courtesan, courtezan, drab, draggle-tail, harlot, hooker, moll, mort, prostitute, punk, streetwalker, strumpet, traipse, trull, unfortunate, walker, wench, whore), bruxa (beldam, hag, hex, sorceress, witch). (various references) | |
Romanian | femeie bãtrânã (gammer, grandam), cotoroanţã (crone), baborniţã. (various references) | |
Russian | старая карга (beldame, crone), карга (hag), ведьма (hag, hellcat, hell-cat, hex, jade, night-hag, nightmare, witch). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | nadžak-baba. (various references) | |
Spanish | vieja (hag, old lady, old man, old woman, oldster), bruja (Beldam, bitch, crone, hag, hex, night-hag, Randy, sorceress, witch, wizard), anciana (grandmother, old woman). (various references) | |
Swedish | gammal häxa (crone). (various references) | |
Turkish | kocakarı (Beldam, beldame, crone, frump, gammer, hag, old woman), cadaloz (battle axe, bitch, grimalkin, hag, old cat, scold, shrew, shrewish, spiteful, termagant, virago, vixen). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | стара карга (crone). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | b gi độc ác cay nghiệt b gi hom hem hốc hác. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| French | 1500-Modern | haridelle. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "harridan": harridans. (additional references) | |
| |
"Harridan" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Farradane, Hardrada, haridan, harijan, Harjinda, Harradine, Harragan, harredan, Harricana, harrid, harridon, Harunda, Hebridena, Hiridanum, Horadam, Horrida, Hourihan, Hujredin, hurdian, Kharusan. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words rhyming with "harridan" (pronounced 'Har"ri*dan'): Acaridan, Apodan, Arachnidan, Araneidan, Buprestidan, Dynastidan, Echinidan, Maidan, Meropidan, Merulidan, Ramadan, Redan, sedan, Shandrydan, Siluridan, Soldan, Soudan, Sowdan. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-d-h-i-n-r-r" | |
-2 letters: dharna, radian. | |
-3 letters: dinar, drain, nadir, naiad, naira, radar, ranid. | |
-4 letters: airn, aria, arid, darn, haar, hair, hand, hard, hind, nada, nard, raia, raid, rain, rand, rani, rind. | |
-5 letters: aah, aha, aid, ain, air, ana, and, ani, dah, din, had, hid, hin, nah, rad, rah, ran, ria, rid, rin. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-d-h-i-n-r-r" | |
+1 letter: harridans. | |
+3 letters: harebrained. | |
+4 letters: handicrafter, hardinggrass, hereditarian. | |
+5 letters: antidiarrheal, archimandrite, chondrocrania, handicrafters, hereditarians, radiographing, synarthrodial. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Quotations: Fiction 3. Usage Frequency 4. Expressions: Internet | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Translations: Ancient 7. Derivations 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
