wench
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English wenche (“girl; young maid”), a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”), from Proto-Germanic *wankilą, from Proto-Germanic *wankijaną (“to sway; waver”). Akin to Old High German wenken (“to waver; yield; give way”), Old High German wankōn (“to totter”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
wench (plural wenches)
- (archaic) A young woman, especially a servant.
- 1590, Sir Philip Sidney, Book 2:
- I, like a tẽder harted wench, shriked out for feare of the divell.
- 1598, George Chapman, Homer's Iliad, Book I:
- Beside, this I affirm (afford
- Impression of it in thy soul) I will not use my sword
- On thee or any for a wench, unjustly though thou tak’st
- The thing thou gav’st […]
- 1604 or 05, William Shakespeare, Alls Well that Ends Well, Act IV, sc. 3:
- […] he weeps like a wench that had shed her
- milk.
- 1611, King James Version, II Samuel 17:17:
- Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king David.
- 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Chapter 33:
- He is usually governed by a decayed wench […]
- 1887, William Black, Sabina Zembra: A Novel, Chapter XXXVI:
- He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed little wench.
- 1590, Sir Philip Sidney, Book 2:
- (archaic) A promiscuous woman.
- 1387 to 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, "The Manciple's Tale":
- Ther nys no difference, trewely,
- Bitwixe a wyf that is of heigh degree,
- If of hir body dishonest she bee,
- And a povre wenche, oother than thisֵ—
- If it so be they werke bothe amys—
- But that the gentile, in estaat above,
- She shal be cleped his lady, as in love;
- And for that oother is a povre womman,
- She shal be cleped his wenche or his lemman […]
- 1589 or 90, Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, Act IV:
- FRIAR BARNARDINE. Thou hast committed—
- BARABAS. Fornication: but that was in another country;
- And besides, the wench is dead.
- 1702, [Matthew Prior], "To a Young Gentleman in Love" (Originally double-sided, anonymous pamphlet, printed for J. Tonson):
- Whilst Men have these Ambitious Fancies,
- And wanton Wenches read Romances;
- Our Sex will be innur'd to lye,
- And theirs instructed to reply.
- 1722, [Richard Stelle], Spectator No. 266, Friday, February 4, 1722:
- It must not thought to be a Digression from my intended Speculation, to talk of Bawds in a discourse upon Wenches; for a Woman of the Town is not thoroughly and properly such, without having gone through the Education of one of these Houses.
- 1387 to 1400 Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, "The Manciple's Tale":
- (US, dated) A black woman; a negress.
- 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Chapter VIII:
- Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in the trade,—a tight, likely wench she was, too, and quite considerable smart […]
- 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Chapter VIII:
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
a young woman
|
a promiscuous woman
Verb[edit]
wench (third-person singular simple present wenches, present participle wenching, simple past and past participle wenched)
- (intransitive) To frequent prostitutes; to womanize.
- Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald
- Already, you see, I had begun to acquire a taste for rakery and wenching among the London debutantes.
- Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald
Translations[edit]
To frequent prostitutes
Adjective[edit]
wench (comparative wencher, superlative wenchest)
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- American English
- English dated terms
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English adjectives
- English slang
- en:Appearance
- en:Female
- en:People
- en:Prostitution