We get the word "bodacious" from a redheaded warrior queen in Britain, who revolted against the Roman Empire. Her name was Boudica.
Her husband, King Prasutagus of the Iceni tribe of East Anglia, had willed half of his kingdom to his daughters and half to the Roman Empire. The Romans seized the entire kingdom, flogged Boudica and raped her daughter. And so she led an uprising against the Romans.
It wasn't until the Romans gathered an army of over 10,000 soldiers - or the entire 14th Legion - that Boudica and her tribes were defeated. Rather than be taken alive, Boudica poisoned herself. She is now known in British folk history as the "Warrior Queen who fought the might of Rome."
"She was very tall, the glance of her eye most fierce; her voice harsh. A great mass of the reddest hair fell down to her hips. Her appearance was terrifying."
Bodacious!
