<blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica ,sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Jim Thomsen: From this week's Time magazine story on singer Faith Hill:<p>"By definition, a diva is a rampaging female ego redeemed only in part by a lovely voice. It's hard to imagine why anyone would want to be one, but a new generation of female talent appears to be weirdly enamored of the word and the idea."<p>I've checked nine dictionaries so far, and none of them give a definition ANYTHING like this ....<hr></blockquote><p>it's a slow saturday at work, so ... <p>this entails a degree or two of separation, and challenges the term "By definition" in the badly written example ... but, from the online OED, we have this:<p>DIVA [It. diva goddess, lady-love, ‘fine lady’: L. d va goddess, female divinity, fem. of d vus divine, god, deity.] A distinguished female singer, a prima donna. <p>PRIMA DONNA 1. The first or principal female singer in an opera. Also prima donna assoluta [It., lit. = absolute], a prima donna of outstanding excellence. 2. transf. and fig. A person of the highest standing in a particular field or activity; one who behaves in a self-important or temperamental manner. <p>Given how little most Americans know about opera, the second definition became better known and more frequently used -- at least by folks of a certain age. That seems to be changing, though, with the pejorative connotation fading.
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