Virago

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Virago ( Latin virago = a virgin looking masculine , also a heroine maiden , heroine ; plur. Viragines ) denotes in German (in the upscale colloquial language) and English - mostly derogatory - a young "man-woman".

The “hero virgin” was a word with positive connotations in Latin. Related words are vir for man, derived from virtus for virtue or manliness, and virgo for virgin . As belli virago (ie war goddess) was Minerva called. Virago alone also stood for the term "goddess".

In anthropology , the term is sometimes used for women with "masculinized" behavior or appearance.

literature

  • Ernst Breisach: Caterina Sforza . A renaissance virago . University Press, Chicago [et al.] 1967.
  • Elizabeth Donnelly Carney: Olympias and the Image of the Virago . In: Phoenix. The journal of the Classical Association of Canada , Vol. 47 (1993), Issue 1 (Spring), pp. 29-55, ISSN  0031-8299
  • Yenna Wu: The Chinese virago. A literary theme (Harvard Yenching institute monograph series; vol. 40). Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. [ua] 1995, ISBN 0-674-12572-X .