Old Woman, Positive & Negative Terms

Old Woman, Positive & Negative Terms

Dear Sisters,

I have compiled a list of five positive, and five negative, terms used in reference to an old woman.

Reverential titles for a wise, kind, generous, helpful, pleasant, older woman are the following: dowager, (wealthy/aristocratic old widow), grandame (great lady, elderly woman of great prestige or ability), matriarch (the feminine head of the family or tribe), matron (the woman in charge of a domestic, educational, or medical institution) and sage (a profoundly wise old woman).

See Top Ten Positive & Impactful Synonyms for Old Lady (with meanings and examples) at the following reference.

https://impactful.ninja/impactful-synonyms-for-old-lady/#:~:text=The%20top%2010%20positive%20%26%20impactful,honored%20matriarch%2C%20and%20vintage%20beauty.

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Scornful insults for a foolish, mean, stingy, harmful, disagreeable, older woman are the following: bag (harm, shame, load, burden), bat (combative from battle axe or neurotic from batty), crone (carrion, dead putrid piece of meat = useless, disagreeable, malicious, sinister), harridan (large, worn out, gaunt, horse = vicious, scolding), shrew (a mouse with a sharp bite = spiteful)

See the negative references for Old Woman

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Thesaurus:old_woman

bag = load, burden

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bag#English

bat = combative or neurotic

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/old-battleaxe

https://www.quora.com/What-does-You-Old-Bat-mean-and-where-does-the-saying-come-from#:~:text=The%20old%20bat%20is%20a,or%20more%20likely%20her%20handbag.

crone = carrion, useless, malicious

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crone#English

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/carrion_n?tl=true

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crone

harridan = horse, vicious

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/harridan#:~:text=It%20comes%20from%20seventeenth%20century,people%20by%20constantly%20finding%20fault

shrew – sharp bite, spiteful

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/shrew

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Note A. the awe/respect/fear inspiring title hag is a magical term [meaning “good-hedge-witch of great power”].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hag#:~:text=The%20term%20appears%20in%20Middle,Old%20High%20German%20hagzusa%2C%20respectively.

However, hag has also been used to mean witch in a negative sense as “daemon, harpy, monster, evil sorceress”

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hag#English

Furthermore, hag, has been confused with the term haggard “gaunt, wasted, exhausted, worn”

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/haggard

Note B. the old positive term beldam, “good/beautiful old lady” has been turned into a new negative slang term meaning “hideous old lady”

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/beldam#:~:text=beldam%20in%20British%20English,ugly%20or%20malicious%20one%3B%20hag

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beldame#English

Note C. the honorable old word biddy “diminutive of Bridget, generic for an Irish maid” has been turned into a derogatory new slang term meaning “fussy, mean, gossipy, busybody”

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biddy#English

Serene Mother Gigi