The T-class destroyer name opens an etymological tangent. Termagant was a name medieval Europeans wrongly assigned to a supposed Muslim god. Shakespeare later used the word for a bullying person, giving it a secular meaning in English. The Royal Navy reused the name for many ships, preserving an older cultural reference in naval naming.
Notable Point · 1:01:42-1:03:03
How Termagant became a Royal Navy ship name
Termagant grew from a medieval European misconception about Muslim belief, later became a Shakespearean word for a bully, and was reused across Royal Navy ships.