quean

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“
Betokeneth an old quean, a bawdy witch,

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A woman regarded as being disreputable, especially a prostitute.
  2. noun Scots A young woman.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples

  • For the bride was a stout household quean; her face painted with vermilion, and her person arrayed in uncouth embroidered garments. —  The Life of Lord Byron
  • A woman with a shape and face like Lakshmibai's hadn't let it go to waste in four years 'widowhood (after being married to some prancing old quean, too), not with the stallions of her palace guard available at the crook of her little finger. —  Flashman In The Great Game
  • "May be he is her coosin; but coosins are nae that sib that a weedow is to be hailed aboot jist ane as though she were ony quean at a fair." —  The Eustace Diamonds
  • Where's the quean will be his consort? —  The Panchronicon
  • Betokeneth an old quean, a bawdy witch, —  A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1
 

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Quean has been looked up 124 times, favorited 0 times, listed 17 times, and commented on 6 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English quene, from Old English cwene, woman; see gwen- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. (a) Also dial. (Scots) quine; early modern English queane, quene; from Middle English quene, quen, cwene, from Anglo-Saxon cwēne, cwy¯ne (genitive cwēnan), properly cwěne, orig. *cwǐne, a woman (Latin femina, mulier), wife (Latin uxor) (cf. cwēnfugol, a henbird—a doubtful word in Somner), = Old Saxon quena, wife, queen (Latin regina), harlot (Latin meretrix), = Old Dutch quene, wife, Middle Dutch quene, a vain or worthless woman, a barren woman, also a barren cow, Dutch kween, a barren woman, a barren cow, = Middle Low German quene, an old woman, Low German quene, a barren cow, a heifer, = Old High German quena (quëna), chwena, chena, Middle High German chone, kone, kon, G. (obsolete) kone, a woman, German dial. kan, chan, a woman, wife, = Icelandic kvenna = Swedish qvinna = Danish kvinde, a woman (cf. contr. Icelandic kona, woman, = Swedish kona, a harlot, = Danish kone, a woman, especially a married woman, wife), = Gothic (Moesogothic) qinō, a woman, wife (Greek γυνή); the above forms being distinct from, though partly confused with (b) English queen (Latin regina), from Middle English queen, quen, quene, kuen, cwene, cwen, from Anglo-Saxon cwēn, rarely cwǣn (genitive cwēne), a woman (Latin femina), wife (Latin uxor), queen (Latin regina, imperatrix, augusta), = Old Saxon quān, wife, = Old High German quēna, chuuēna = Icelandic kvān, kvæn, wife, = Gothic (Moesogothic) kwēws, rarely kweins, wife (not recorded in sense of ‘queen’); both forms ult. akin to Irish Gaelic coinne, a woman; Greek γυνή, a woman, female (see gynæceum, gynarchy, etc., gynecocracy, etc.); Sanskrit jāni, a wife, apparently from √ jan = Greek √ γεν = L. √ gen = Teutonic √ ken, bring forth: see ken. kin, genus, generate, etc.
 

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/kwin/
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