termagant, term a gaunt

& s. [From Termagant, the name of one of the idols whom the Saracens are represented in med iæval romances as worshiping. He was afterward introduced into the old Moralities as a person of violent temper, so that a ranting actor might appear to advantage in that character ( Shakesp.: Hamlet, iii. 2). It is a corrupt. of O. Fr. Tervagant, Tervagan, or Tarvagan, used for a Saracen idol, from Ital. Trivagante, Tri vigante, prob. = the moon, as wandering under the three names of Selene (or Luna) in heaven, Artemis (or Diana) on earth, and Perse phone (or Proser pine) in the lower world; from Lat. ter =thrice, and vagans, pr. par. of vag or =to wander.] A. As adj .: Violent, quarrelsome, boisterous, turbulent. "'Twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too."- Shakesp .: Henry IV ., Pt. I., v. 4. B. As substantive: *1. The name given by the writers of medieval romances to a fabled Saracen idol. (See etym.) "Nor fright the reader with the Pagan vaunt Of mighty Mahound, and great Term a gaunt." Bp. Hall : Satires , i. 1. *2. A turbulent, brawling, scolding, or abusive as tergiferous plants, such as bear their seeds on the backs of their leaves, as ferns; dorsiferous. *ter-giv-er-sāte, v. i. [Lat. tergiversatus , pa. par. of tergiversor = to turn one's back, to refuse, to shuffle: tergum =the back, and vers or to turn one's self about; versus , pa. par. of ver to =to turn.] To shift, to shuffle; to practice evasion, shifts, or subterfuges. "Who also if he were conscious that his a umentum to the Platonic theology were not so defensible a thing, doth himself sometime as it were tergiversate and decline it by equivocating in the word Henades."Cudworth: Intell. Syst ., p. 569.