quean
English
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quean
- /kwiːn/
Sounds like queen · Rhymes with -iːn
Where it comes from
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”). Doublet of gyne and queen.
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”).
noun queans · quine · quene · queane
- A woman, now especially an impudent or disreputable woman; a prostitute. Rahab, that harlot, began to be a professed quean at ten years of age […]
- A young woman, a girl; a daughter. 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.
Talk about this word "quean." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/quean. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. quean. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/quean "quean." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/quean.Cite this
@misc{quean_2026,
title = {quean},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/quean},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
