wench

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English

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WOTD – 15 January 2020

Etymology

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The noun is derived fromMiddle Englishwench,wenche(“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”)[and other forms],[1]a shortened form ofMiddle Englishwenchel(“girl; maiden; child”),fromOld Englishwenċel,winċel(“child; servant; slave”),[2][3]fromProto-Germanic*wankilą,fromProto-Germanic*wankijaną(“to sway; waver”).The English word is cognate withOld High Germanwenken(“to waver; to give way, yield”),wankōn(“to totter”).

The verb[4]and adjective are derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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wench(pluralwenches)

  1. (archaic,nowdialectalorhumorous,possiblyoffensive)Agirloryoungwoman,especially abuxomorlivelyone.
    Jane played the role of awenchin an Elizabethan comedy.
    1. (specifically)A girl or young woman of alower class.
      • 1871,W[illiam]Barry, “The Barony of Threeneheila within Drum”, inMoorland and Stream. With Notes and Prose Idyls on Shooting and Trout Fishing,London:Tinsley Brothers,[…],→OCLC,page25:
        The woman is a brazen, hard-lookingwench,a female pedlar, who hawks needles, thread, cheap looking-glasses, pious pictures, almanacs, hair-pins, ballads, of the most humble pattern, through the country.
  2. (archaicordialectal)Used as aterm of endearmentfor afemaleperson, especially awife,daughter,orgirlfriend:darling,sweetheart.
  3. (archaic)Awomanservant;amaidservant.
  4. (archaic)Apromiscuouswoman; amistress(“other womanin anextramaritalrelationship”).
    Synonyms:seeThesaurus:promiscuous woman,Thesaurus:mistress
    • c.1589–1590(date written),Christopher Marlo[we],edited byTho[mas] Heywood,The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta.[…],London:[…]I[ohn]B[eale]for Nicholas Vavasour,[…],published1633,→OCLC,Act IV,signature G2, verso:
      2[Friar Bernardine]. Thou haſt committed— /Bar[abas]. Fornication? but that was in another Country; And beſides, theWenchis dead.
    • 1702,Mat[thew] Prior,“To a Young Gentleman in Love. A Tale.”, inPoems on Several Occasions,2nd edition, London: Printed forJacob Tonson,[…],published1709,→OCLC,page103:
      Whilſt Men have theſe Ambitious Fancies, / And wantonWenchesread Romances, / Our Sex will—What? out with it: Lye: / And Theirs in equal Strains reply.
      Originally printed for Jacob Tonson as an anonymous, double-sided pamphlet.
    • 1712January 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison;Richard Steeleet al.], “FRIDAY, January 4, 1711–1712”,inThe Spectator,number266;republished inAlexander Chalmers,editor,The Spectator; a New Edition,[…],volume III, New York, N.Y.:D[aniel] Appleton & Company,1853,→OCLC,page329:
      It must not thought a digression from my intended speculation, to talk of bawds in a discourse uponwenches;for a woman of the town is not thoroughly and properly such, without having gone through the education of one of these houses.
      The spelling has been modernized.
  5. (archaic)Aprostitute.
  6. (US,archaicorhistorical)Ablackwoman (of anyage), especially if in aconditionofservitude.
    Synonym:(dated, literary, now offensive)negress
    • 1776–1787,Carmelita Robertson, Elizabeth E. D. Eve,Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia: Tracing the History of Tracadie Loyalists, 1776–87(Curatorial Report;no. 91), Halifax, N.S.: History Section,Nova Scotia Museum,Department of Tourism & Culture, published2000,→ISBN:
      Nancy Basset, 28, likelywench,mulatto / Proved to be free. / Certified free as per General Birch Certificate. / / Patience Jackson, 23, very likelywench,mulatto / Says she was born free Rhode Island. / Certified free as per General Birch Certificate.
    • 1851June –1852April,Harriet Beecher Stowe,“[Eliza’s Escape]”,inUncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly,volume I, Boston, Mass.:John P[unchard] Jewett & Company;Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published20 March 1852,→OCLC,page100:
      Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in the trade,—a tight, likelywenchshe was, too, and quite considerable smart— [...]
    • 1866March 2, “Sharp Wench”, inThe Appeal,St. Paul, Minneapolis, Minn.: Parker, Burgett & Hardy,→OCLC,page 3; quoted in Hannah Rosen, “Notes”, inTerror in the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South(Gender and American Culture), Chapel Hill, N.C.:University of North Carolina Press,2009,→ISBN,footnote 186,page282:
      A colored girl[…]was fined ten dollars in the Freedman's Court yesterday, for being drunk and disorderly. Not having the money in her possession, she requested that a guard be sent with her to her residence to procure it. The Provost allowed a guard to wait on thewench,who, as soon as she found herself inside of her own door, locked it, and left the poor guard outside without the money. He returned to court without either thewenchor fine.
    • 2014,Kirsten Pullen, “Light Egyptian:Lena Horneand the Representation of Black Femininity”, inLike a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood,New Brunswick, N.J.:Rutgers University Press,→ISBN,pages106–107:
      So complete was this illusion, claims[Eric] Lott,that many audience members, includingMark Twain's mother, believed they were seeing authentic, biologically black performers on New York stages. Of course,wenchcharacters seem to especially test the bounds of authentic performance. Played by men,wencheswere nonetheless read by audiences as beautiful women: [...] [E]xtant photographs and engravings ofwenchperformers do not always represent them as blacked up,[…]In antebellum minstrel shows,wenchsongs were most often sungaboutmulatto women rather than by them.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Sranan Tongo:wenke

Translations

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Verb

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wench(third-person singular simple presentwenches,present participlewenching,simple past and past participlewenched)

  1. (intransitive,archaic,nowhumorous)Tofrequentprostitutes;towhore;also, towomanize.
    • 1638,Thomas Nabbes,The Bride, a Comedie.[…],London: Printed by R[ichard]H[odgkinson]for Laurence Blaikelocke[…],published1640,→OCLC;republished inPlayes, Maskes, Epigrams, Elegies, and Epithalamiums.[…],London: Printed by I. Dawson,[…],1639,→OCLC,Act II, scene iv:
      This is ſure ſome hide-bound ſtudent, that proportions his expence by his penſion; andwenchethat Tottenham court for ſtewed prunes and cheeſcakes.
    • 1647,William Lilly,“Another Briefe Description of the Shapes and Formes of the Planets”, inChristian Astrology Modestly Treated of in Three Books.[…],London: Printed by Tho[mas]Brudenell for John Partridge and Humph[rey]Blunden,[…],→OCLC,page85:
      He [a man under the influence of the planet Mars] hath a marke or ſcar in his face, is broad-ſhouldered, a ſturdy ſtrong body, being bold and proud, given to mocke, ſcorne, quarrell, drinke, game andwench:which you may eaſily know by the Signe he is in; if in the houſe of ♀ hewencheth,if in ☿s he ſteals, [...]
    • 1767,[Hugh Kelly], “Saturday, May 1”, inThe Babler. Containing a Careful Selection from those Entertaining and Interesting Essays, which have Given the Public so much Satisfaction under that Title during a Course of Four Years, in Owen’s Weekly Chronicle,volume II, number LXVI, London: Printed forJ[ohn]Newbery,[…];L. Hawes, W. Clarke, and R. Collins,[…];and J. Harrison,[…],→OCLC:
      In ſhort, Ned has drank,wenched,fought, and beggared himſelf, through an exalted ſolicitude for the general emolument, and is now cloſe pent up in one of our priſons, out of a pure and diſintereſted regard for the welfare of ſociety.
    • 1807March,[Charles] Dibdin,“Dibdin’s Tour.[Letter 1… Introductory.]”,inThe Polyanthos,volume IV, Boston, Mass.: Published byJ[oseph]T[inker]Buckingham,[…],→OCLC,footnote,page247:
      I know a clergyman who, having enjoyed for several years the world's good opinion, was turned off, through a ridiculous pique, by a young nobleman to whom he was preceptor.[…]He drank,wenched,and was so complete a gambler, that, had he kept his old situation much longer, he would have ruined the principles of his pupil.
    • 1822May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, inThe Fortunes of Nigel.[…],volume III, Edinburgh:[…][James Ballantyne and Co.] forArchibald Constable and Co.;London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co.,→OCLC,page231:
      This Dalgarno does not drink so much, or swear so much, as his father; but hewenches,Geordie, and he breaks his word and oathbaith.
    • 1972,Philip K[indred] Dick,chapter 1, inWe Can Build You(DAW SF Books;no. 14), New York, N.Y.:DAW Books,→OCLC;republished London: HarperVoyager,HarperCollins,2008,→ISBN,page11:
      Bundy's reasons for leaving the Cape are obscure. He drinks, but that doesn't dim his powers. Hewenches.But so do we all.
    • 1979October,Roald Dahl,chapter1,inMy Uncle Oswald,London:Michael Joseph,→ISBN;republished New York, N.Y.:Penguin Books,2011,→ISBN:
      Already, you see, I had begun to acquire a taste for rakery andwenchingamong the London debutantes.

Conjugation

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Conjugation ofwench
infinitive (to)wench
present tense past tense
1st-personsingularwench wenched
2nd-personsingular wench,wenchest† wenched,wenchedst†
3rd-personsingular wenches,wencheth† wenched
plural wench
subjunctive wench wenched
imperative wench —
participles wenching wenched

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^“wench(e,n.”,inMED Online,Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
  2. ^“wenchel,n.”,inMED Online,Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
  3. ^“wench,n.”,inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1926;“wench,n.”,inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
  4. ^“wench,v.”,inOED OnlinePaid subscription required⁠,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1926;“wench,v.”,inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.

Anagrams

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Middle English

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Noun

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wench

  1. Alternative form ofwenche
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