Word of the Day Archive
Saturday November 5, 2011
quean \kween\
, noun:
1. An overly forward, impudent woman; shrew; hussy.
2. A prostitute.
3. British Dialect. A girl or young woman, especially a robust one.
I answer thee, thou art a beggar, a quean, and a bawd.
-- Thomas Middleton, Five Plays
Had I had my own will, I would have had her to Bridewell, to flog the wild blood out of her—a cutty quean, to think of wearing the breeches, and not so much as married yet!
-- Sir Walter Scott, Waverley Novels
Quean, predictably, is rooted in the same Old English word that queen comes from, the word cwen which meant woman.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for quean
