quean

English

Alternative forms

• quene (obsolete)
• queane (obsolete)
• quine (Scotland)

Etymology

From Middle English quene ‎(“young, robust woman”), from Old English cwene ‎(“woman, female serf”), from Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ ‎(“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn ‎(“woman”). Cognate with Dutch kween ‎(“a barren woman, a barren cow”), Low German quene ‎(“barren cow, heifer”), German dialectal Kan, Chan ‎(“woman, wife”), Swedish kvinna ‎(“woman”), Icelandic kona ‎(“woman”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉 ‎(qino, “female, woman”), 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 ‎(qens, “wife”). More at queen.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwiːn/
• Homophone: queen

Noun

quean ‎(plural queans)

1. A woman, now especially an impudent or disreputable woman; a prostitute. [from 10th c.]
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, III.2.1.ii:

     Rahab, that harlot, began to be a professed quean at ten years of age […].

2. (Scotland) A young woman, a girl; a daughter. [from 15th c.]
   • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 30:

     Forbye the two queans there was the son, John Gordon, as coarse a devil as you'd meet, he'd already had two-three queans in trouble and him but barely eighteen years old.

Derived terms

• cuckquean

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Scots

Etymology

From Old English cwene, from Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ ‎(“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn ‎(“woman”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kwin], [kwen], [kwəin]

Noun

quean ‎(plural queans)

1. young woman, girl