Badass

My wife and our son's girlfriend met for the first time in December of 2019.

I suspect they both had reservations about each other, but after a long talk during a walk to and from our local Shinto Shrine, they warmed-up and finally signalled mutual respect.

A week or so later our son made the mistake of informing my wife that his girlfriend thought his mom was a "badass".

We all understood this to be a great compliment, except for my wife, who wasn't familiar with the expression.

She was furious, and it took a while to convince her it wasn't an insult but, instead, an extreme compliment. She finally calmed down and (skeptically) accepted our assurances it was indeed a compliment.

A little over a year later I was working on the NY Times crossword puzzle and came across a clue/answer combination I knew my wife would like.

I showed it to her, and saw all her concerns about that badass "insult" vanish.