feisty

[MaryAnnSmotheredinchocolate]

Am sick of the over use of this word...

[marina]

I have to admire your chutzpah MaryAnn, you've really got cojones

[WendyWeber]

and you are probably a mensch too

[MaryAnnSmotheredinchocolate]

!

[Bink]

Maybe problem is that there isn't another word which occupies same space ... "formidable" is the cliché for the 40+ post-feisty matron, but what else is there?

[MaryAnnSmotheredinchocolate]

mm, you're right I guess, it's just that it crops up everywhere

[Swedes]

Bad tempered bitch with red hair is a bit long-winded isn't it?

[franke]

I cannot bear the word feisty. I don't like its connotations and I don't like the type of people who use it, generally.

[unknownrebelbang]

You describing me Swedes?

[marina]

"resolute" sounds much less entertaining in execution, and "outspoken" is only a partial match
With dd it really is a direct synonym for "bossy"

[marina]

Swedes how did you know...

[Bink]

Here, because I ought to be doing something else, is the online thesaurus:

spirited; touchy
Synonyms: active, alive, bubbly, courageous, difficult, enthusiastic, excitable, fiery, frisky, full of pep, game, gritty, gutsy, gutty, high-strung, hot-blooded, lively, mettlesome, ornery, peppy, quarrelsome, scrappy, sensitive, spunky, thin-skinned, tough, truculent, zestful

Love the mixed message, huh? Something of a feminist parable in there.

[Swedes]

Feisty is not at all complimentary is it?

[Swedes]

Feisty is not at all complimentary is it?

[MaryAnnSmotheredinchocolate]

spunky isn't nice either

[marina]

Now, mettlesome I am comfortable with

[marina]

and spunky and gutty I am not so taken with

[Bink]

and truculent is downright horrible. I've only once heard it used of a person, & it was the damning word used by a judge to describe a really slimy dishonest aggressive witness.

[WendyWeber]

I thought feisty was quite complimentary - sort of grudgingly-admiring.

Jerry the mouse is feisty

[Bink]

Oh I meant to say - yes, I too think "feisty" is positive - to me it means outspoken, possibly a bit hasty, somewhat in your face, but with a big good heart.

[LambethLil]

Also faastie. Similar meaning, but pronounced face-ty has younger, stropier conotations.

[IorekByrnison]

Feisty is a profoundly unpleasant word. What other word is only used of women and horses?

Hello Swedes, I thought you abstaining from mumsnet for a lenten observance. Have you been let out early for good behaviour?

[Swedes]

Iorek - Hello

[Bink]

Iorek - see my post below about "formidable" (which as my MIL so memorably observed once is only used of mature women in positions of authority - with more than a hint of contempt masquerading as admiration)

See here from online etym. dictionary (have link on favourites due to 8yo ds with passion for "word roots" as he calls them):

"Feist, also fice, is one of several regional terms for a small mixed-breed dog. Used throughout the Midland and Southern states, feist connotes a snappy, nervous, belligerent little dog?hence the derived adjective feisty, meaning "touchy, quarrelsome, or spirited," applicable to animals and to people. Although feist remains a regional word, feisty has now entered standard usage throughout the United States."

I think I will now excise it from my vocab.

[Swedes]

Iorek, totally agree. It suggests the woman/girl/horse/pony is not sufficiently compliant for a snaffle bit.

[IorekByrnison]

Exactly Swedes. Nasty.

Agree about formidable too, Bink.