quean

English

Alternative forms

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

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /kwiːn/
• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophone: queen

Noun

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: Printed by 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

• cuckquean
• cot-quean

Anagrams

• quena

Scots

Alternative forms

• quine (Doric)

Etymology

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

• 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.