[Lexicog] new idiom

[Hayim Sheynin]

Fritz,

I use the name Xanthippe almost every day. I relay this name to wives of artists and scholars who do not give them opportunity to work on their projects,
but force them go for jobs to bring money home. Such wives do not appreciate the talents of their husbands and do not recognize their work as necessary.
This is definitely the name for the category of women.
What other names of wives of famous men can be a characteristic of a category?

Hayim

Fritz Goerling <Fritz_Goerling at sil.org> wrote:                                          
  David,
   
  “Battle-axe” is a good one. No equivalent in German. In some languages the names of wives of famous men have entered the language
  to characterize a certain kind of woman: like Xanthippe (Socrates’wife) is used in English and German.
   
  Fritz
   
  My dad used to say that a little incompatibility wasn't such a bad thing in a marriage, especially if he had the income and she had the pattibility.
 
 Do German, Polish, Russian, etc., have anything parallel to the English "battle-axe" for a certain kind of woman?
 
 --David T
 
 
 
  
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