Word For The Day

The Verbivores | 9/10/03 | Hobbes1 The Good Sub

[hobbes1]

xantippe noun
Pronunciation:zan*tip

Date: 14th century

1. shrewish wife of Socrates
2.figuratively, a bad-tempered woman

I am not Going there.....So have at it...

[hobbes1]

The first English appearance of the Greek name Xantippe occurs in The Taming of the Shrew. In that comedy, the mercenary Petruchio explains that he is not particular about whom he chooses to marry; as long as a woman has money, he says, it does not matter if she is "as curst and shrowd / As Socrates’ Xantippe" (I.ii.70-71). With his first and only reference to Xantippe (and to Socrates), Shakespeare expresses the stereotype of Socrates’ wife as a nagging housewife.

The modern French writer Simone de Beauvoir, however, argues in The Second Sex, "In the figure of Xantippe are summed up all the grievances of the Greek citizen against the shrewish wife and against the adversities of married life," for "males have always complained about Xantippe’s tyranny."

The only term in Shakespeare’s canon to begin with the letter X, this name is variously spelled, from Zentippe in the First Folio to Zantippe in later editions. Modern spellers prefer Xantippe or Xanthippe; depending on the chosen spelling, the name is pronounced either "zan-TIH-pee" or "zan-THIH-pee."

Other writers have followed Shakespeare’s lead. In Tom Jones (1749), Henry Fielding referred to "an errant Vixen of a Wife.... By this Xantippe he had two Sons." More than a century later, the plural of the name appeared in an 1859 book on manners: "For the time being, the worst of Xantippes must turn into an angel of amiability if she gives a ball." Such a sentence is unlikely in a modern book—balls are rarer than they used to be, and women are almost never referred to as Xantippes.

[hobbes1]

*Ping

[xsmommy]

rme

[hobbes1]

*ping

[hobbes1]

Minor cut and paste error in the pronunciation....

Zan Tip EE

[Gabz]

SHEESH

[xsmommy]

For the Nuge's sake, i hope that Sharmane Nugent is not a xantippe.

[hobbes1]

heh heh

[hobbes1]

She had to know this kind of thing was a possibility, it is the one wretched excess he has always confessed to...

[xsmommy]

thank you for opening the classroom.

[Gabz]

You and hubby must have been talking after my last bout of PMS!!!!!!!

[Texan5]

Morning, hobbes! How's this?

The democrat senators are brought to heel
When a renegade colleague cuts a deal.
So they return to Texas under duress
With Letecia playing Xantippe to the press.

I do so love the smell of democrats frying in the morning...

[NeoCaveman]

3

[hobbes1]

Nice Rhyme....!

[secret garden]

A chick-bashing word. How surprising.

[NeoCaveman]

The History of Hillary:
Hippie, Harpy, Zantippe.

[hobbes1]

Excellent...

[hobbes1]

A chick-bashing word. How surprisin

That is so socially unacceptable.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times.....

Never call Broads Chicks!

[Laura Earl]

Morning!

[NeoCaveman]

How to be the opposite of a xantippe.

The coquettes can thank me later for all the good advice.