Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The qualities of a virago. [Rare.] Imp. Dict.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The qualities or characteristics of a virago.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The qualities or characteristics of a
virago .
Etymologies
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Examples
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Holbein's portraitures of her youth, or those of her stately prime of viraginity by De Heere and Zucchero.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 12, No. 346, December 13, 1828 Various
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Contrariwise, the girl who is destined in later life to display the characteristics of viraginity will be found frequenting the playground of the boys.
The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll 1900
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Von Krafft-Ebing and many other writers have assumed that the characteristics of effemination and of viraginity are displayed in early childhood.
The Sexual Life of the Child Albert Moll 1900
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Almost every case of effemination or viraginity can be cured if recognized and treated in its incipiency.
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
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Mothers, early in life, though not from any sense of danger to their daughters, begin to eradicate the tom-boy inclinations in their female children; hence the comparative infrequency of viraginity.
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
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The case of Alice Mitchell, who killed Freda Ward in Memphis not long ago, was one of pronounced viraginity.
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
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In this article I have described only mild types of viraginity and effemination.
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
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They should keep a watchful supervision over their offspring, and as soon as any evidences of effemination or viraginity become apparent, treatment, both physical and psychical, should at once be instituted.
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
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The congenital viragint will always remain somewhat masculine in her tastes and ideas, but her inclinations and desires having been turned toward femininity early in life, she will escape the horrors of complete viraginity or gynandry.
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
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As it is probable that this form of viraginity is sometimes acquired to
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire James Weir 1881
sionnach commented on the word viraginity
Deflowering by the alpha male.
January 24, 2008
mialuthien commented on the word viraginity
Masculine qualities in a woman (see virago).
July 18, 2008
qms commented on the word viraginity
n 1973 a group of women founded a publishing company with a feminist mission in London and called it Virago Press. The writer and linguist Anthony Burgess was sympathetic to their cause but opined that they had done a poor job of choosing a name because virago has negative connotations. The ladies disagreed and a literary feud was commenced.
In Burgess's understanding virago was roughly synonymous with harridan or termagant and the amazonian connotation intended by the publishing house was obscure and archaic. I see that dictionaries offer both conflicting definitions and that the older ones give prominence to the negative sense while newer (or more populist) dictionaries tend to feature the positive.
While Burgess asserted affinity
'Twixt virago and foul masculinity
The ladies said, "Nay!
We'll have it our way
By defining our own viraginity."
August 3, 2015