henpeck

English

WOTD – 30 May 2010

Etymology

From hen +‎ peck.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛnpɛk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛnˌpɛk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hen‧peck

Verb

henpeck (third-person singular simple present henpecks, present participle henpecking, simple past and past participle henpecked)

1. (chiefly by a wife) To nag persistently.
   • 1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto I, (please specify the stanza number):

     But—Oh! ye lords of ladies intellectual, Inform us truly, have they not hen-peck'd you all?

   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter LIV, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He wears a beard, and he likes his women to be slaves. What man doesn’t? What man would be henpecked, I say? We will cut off all the heads in Christendom or Turkeydom rather than that.

   • 1876, Emma Jane Worboise, “The Countess at Home”, in Lady Clarissa, London: James Clarke & Co., […]; Hodder and Stoughton, […], →OCLC, page 192:

     I don't want to hen-peck you ! Hen-pecking is shocking bad taste. But I won't be a slighted, neglected wife; I have a spirit of my own, and I won't meekly submit to be ignored.

   • 1945, Pierre Paul Ebeyer, Gems of the Vieux Carre, page 77:

     Well, one never hears a woman boast that she henpecks her husband, even though there are many, for the reason that she realizes it is wrong.

   • 1995, Betty Malz, Women in Tune, page 88:

     We have friends who thought it was cute when their daughter "hen-pecked" her husband. But, when their son married a spicy little gal who tried to hen-peck their son, they were very angry.

   • 2014, Jaqueline Girdner, A Sensitive Kind of Murder:

     Laura didn't have to hen-peck the man; he was a self-made wimp.

Alternative forms

• hen-peck, hen peck

Derived terms

• henpecked

Translations

to nag persistently

• Finnish: nalkuttaa (fi)
• French: persécuter (fr), barber (fr), importuner (fr), harceler (fr), emmerder (fr) (gross), faire chier (fr) (very gross), casser les couilles (fr) (very gross)
• Italian: importunare (it), punzecchiare (it)
• Mandarin: 唠叨 (zh)
• Maori: haku, hakuhaku
• Russian: держа́ть под каблуком (deržátʹ pod kablukom)
• Spanish: jorobar (es), fastidiar (es), importunar (es), hostigar (es), acosar (es), joder (es) (very gross)
• Swedish: hunsa (sv)

Noun

henpeck (plural henpecks)

1. (rare) A man who is meekly subservient to his wife.
   • 1953, B. V. P., Chronicles of Dewan Bahadur, Yama Dharma Rao, page 44:

     One can't swear that Dewan Bahadur Yama Dharma Rao was a henpeck ; nor could be said that the practical Lady was a cockpeck.

   • 1985, James Mallahan Cain, Roy Hoopes, Michael Hinden, 60 Years of Journalism, page 40:

     The moment he allows the emphasis to swing the other way he becomes a sit-by-the-fire, a cockerel, a drone, a henpeck. A woman steps into this man's sphere at her peril.