Xanthippe Nagging Woman Socrates Xantippe Zan Thip Ee Tip Noun

noun

A nagging, ill-tempered woman.

[After Xanthippe, wife of Socrates (c. 5 BCE) who has been portrayed as a nagging, quarrelsome woman. The name Xanthippe is from xanthos (yellow) + hippos (horse). Also see xanthodontous. Earliest documented use: 1691. Socrates is said to have advised, "By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." It's not known what Socrates thought would happen if the roles were reversed. Also, there's the question of which came first: philosophizing or being ill-tempered. Would being married to a philosopher turn a woman into a shrew?]

Mistress Foster is a grasping shrew, a Xanthippe, who bosses her husband about." - Jean Howard; Theater of a City: The Places of London Comedy; University of Pennsylvania Press; 2009.