We only have time for two such terms today, and we'll begin with harpy. The Greek poet Apollonius described the capitalized Harpies as frightful flying creatures with hooked beaks and claws who left a foul stench as their calling card. The tale of Jason and the Argonauts includes an episode in which two men, sons of Boreas (god of the North wind), saved an old man from death at the hands—or should we say, at the unbearable stink—of the malodorous harpies.

The transition of harpy from the realm of mythological naming into that of name-calling was relatively swift. Within a century of its initial appearance in English, harpy had become a byword for "any predatory person, or a shrewish woman."

After the Argonauts left the Harpies, favorable winds allowed them to sail past the Amazons of Asia Minor without stopping. Those female warriors, daughters of the Greek god of war, loaned their lower-case name first to any female fighter and eventually to any tall, strong, masculine woman.