henpeck

English[edit]

WOTD – 30 May 2010

Alternative forms[edit]

hen-peck, hen peck

Etymology[edit]

hen +‎ peck

Pronunciation[edit]

(UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛn.pɛk/
Audio (AU) (file)

Verb[edit]

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

(chiefly by a wife) To nag persistently.
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 54, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (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.
- 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.

Derived terms[edit]

henpecked

Translations[edit]

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)

Noun[edit]

henpeck (plural henpecks)

(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.