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 Kon (“wife”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Icelandic kona (“woman”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉 (qinō, “woman”), 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “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.]
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970, partition III, section 2, member 1, subsection ii:

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

   • 1936: Like the Phoenix by Anthony Bertram

     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.

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

Alternative forms

• quine (Doric)

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