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Webster 1913 Edition


Quean

Quean

,
Noun.
[Originally, a woman, AS.
cwene
; akin to OS.
quena
, OHG.
quena
, Icel.
kona
, Goth
qin[GREEK]
, and AS.
cwén
, also to Gr. [GREEK] woman, wife, Skr.
gnā
goddess. Cf.
Queen
.]
1.
A woman; a young or unmarried woman; a girl.
[Obs. or Scot.]
Chaucer.
2.
A low woman; a wench; a slut.
“The dread of every scolding quean.”
Gay.

Webster 1828 Edition


Quean

QUEAN

, n.
A worthless woman; a slut; a strumpet. [Not in common use.]

Definition 2024


quean

quean

English

Alternative forms

Noun

quean (plural queans)

  1. A woman, now especially an impudent or disreputable woman; a prostitute. [from 10th c.]
  2. (Scotland) A young woman, a girl; a daughter. [from 15th c.]
    • 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song, Polygon 2006 (A Scots Quair), p. 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


Scots

Etymology

From Old English cwene, 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