fishwife

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a woman who sells fish; a coarse, loud-mouthed woman

   She scolded the porters like a fishwife at the dock.

A compound of fish + wife (in the older sense of 'woman'), from Old English fisc + wīf; originally a woman selling fish, with the pejorative 'coarse, loud woman' sense from such vendors' reputed manner.

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