## AI Etymology
harridan is of uncertain origin, recorded from the late seventeenth century; probably from French haridelle ('a worn-out horse, a gaunt woman'). The path is chiefly one of transmission: the word passes through the named languages and forms, with each stage preserving part of the modern shape. The etymology remains cautious where the history is cautious: comparisons, echoic formation, or disputed derivation do not make the ancestry more definite than the forms actually named. In present English, the noun sense is "a bossy, belligerent, or scolding old woman", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. Its semantic neighborhood includes shrew, termagant, virago, and scold, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include French haridelle.

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- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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harridan

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