quean

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English quene (young, robust woman), from Old English cwene (woman, female serf), from Proto-West Germanic *kwenā, 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 Kone (wife), Swedish kvinna (woman), Icelandic kona (woman), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉 (qinō, woman), 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, wife). More at queen.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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quean (plural queans)

  1. (archaic) A woman, now especially an impudent or disreputable woman; a prostitute. [from 10th c.]
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: [] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection ii:
      Rahab, that harlot, began to be a professed quean at ten years of age []
    • 1936, Anthony Bertram, Like the Phoenix:
      However, terrible as it may seem to the tall maiden sisters of J.P.'s in Queen Anne houses with walled vegetable gardens, this courtesan, strumpet, harlot, whore, punk, fille de joie, street-walker, this trollop, this trull, this baggage, this hussy, this drab, skit, rig, quean, mopsy, demirep, demimondaine, this wanton, this fornicatress, this doxy, this concubine, this frail sister, this poor Queenie--did actually solicit me, did actually say 'coming home to-night, dearie' and my soul was not blasted enough to call a policeman.
    • 1921, original c. 1353, first English translation 1620, Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by J.M. Rigg, The Decameron, page 307:
      So ended Lauretta her song, to which all hearkened attentively, though not all interpreted it alike. Some were inclined to give it a moral after the Milanese fashion, to wit, that a good porker was better than a pretty quean.
  2. (Scotland) A young woman, a girl; a daughter. [from 15th c.]
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song (A Scots Quair), Polygon, published 2006, page 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

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Anagrams

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Scots

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English quene, from Old English cwene, from Proto-West Germanic *kwenā, from Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ (woman), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (woman).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /kwin/, /kwen/, /kwəin/

Noun

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quean (plural queans)

  1. young woman, girl
  2. daughter
  3. maidservant
  4. female sweetheart
  5. (Shetland) A ram incapable of procreation, a hermaphrodite sheep.