wench
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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 is derived from the noun.[4]
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key):/wɛnt͡ʃ/
Audio(General Australian): (file) - Rhymes:-ɛntʃ
Noun
[edit]wench(pluralwenches)
- (archaic,nowdialectalorhumorous,possiblyoffensive)Agirloryoungwoman,especially abuxomorlivelyone.
- Jane played the role of awenchin an Elizabethan comedy.
- a.1587,Philippe Sidnei [i.e.,Philip Sidney], “[The Second Booke]Chapter 14”, in [Fulke Greville;Matthew Gwinne;John Florio], editors,The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia[The New Arcadia], London:[…][John Windet] forWilliam Ponsonbie,published1590,→OCLC,folio 164, recto:
- I, like a tẽder hartedvvench,ſkriked out for feare of the divell.
- c.1604–1605(date written),William Shakespeare,“All’s Well, that Ends Well”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act IV, scene iii],page247,column 2:
- hee weepes like awenchthat had ſhed her / milke, he hath confeſt himſelfe toMorgan,whom hee ſuppoſes to be a Friar, [...]
- 1611,The Holy Bible,[…](King James Version), London:[…]Robert Barker,[…],→OCLC,2 Samuel17:17,column 1:
- [1611?],Homer,“Book I”, inGeo[rge] Chapman,transl.,The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets.[…],London:[…]Nathaniell Butter,→OCLC;republished asThe Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets,[…],new edition, volume I, London:Charles Knight and Co.,[…],1843,→OCLC,page35:
- Beside, this I affirm—afford / Impression of it in thy soul—I will not use my sword / On thee or any for awench,unjustly though thou tak'st / The thing thou gav'st;[…]
- 1726October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Continuation of the State ofEngland;so Well Governed by a Queen as to Need no First Minister.[…]”,inTravels into Several Remote Nations of the World.[…][Gulliver’s Travels],volume II, London:[…]Benj[amin]Motte,[…],→OCLC,part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms),page248:
- He [a chief minister] is uſually governed by a decayedWench,or favourite Footman, who are the Tunnels through which all Graces are conveyed, and may properly be called,in the laſt Reſort,the Governors of the Kingdom.
- 1887,William Black,“New Quarters”, inSabina Zembra[…],volume III, London, New York, N.Y.:Macmillan and Co.,→OCLC,page22:
- He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed littlewench,who seemed to regard the tall, bronzed, black-eyed stranger with much and evident favour.
- 1986November 15,Beastie Boys,Rick Rubin(lyrics and music), “Rhymin & Stealin”, inLicensed to Ill,performed by the Beastie Boys:
- We gotwencheson the benches, and bitties with titties / Housing all girlies from city to city
- 2012September 25, Jocelyn Samara D.,Rain(webcomic),Comic 262 - Too Funny:
- "Can't we use a real girl? Can't Maria just play along?" / "She's at the movies with Chanel." / "Luckywench.Why can't Ryan just be with a guy? Aren't you offended? "/" Just doing what Rain said to do. And actually, a little, yeah. "
- (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.
- (archaicordialectal)Used as aterm of endearmentfor afemaleperson, especially awife,daughter,orgirlfriend:darling,sweetheart.
- 1613(date written),William Shakespeare,[John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”,inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies[…](First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard,andEd[ward]Blount,published1623,→OCLC,[Act IV, scene ii],page226,column 2:
- When I am dead, goodWench,/ Let me be vs'd with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue: [...]
- 1856,Elizabeth Barrett Browning,“Third Book”, inAurora Leigh,London:Chapman and Hall,[…],published1857,→OCLC,page126:
- The mother held her tight, / Saying hard between her teeth—'Whywench,whywench,/ The squire speaks to you now—the squire's too good; / He means to set you up, and comfort us. / Be mannerly at least.'
- (archaic)Awomanservant;amaidservant.
- 1526,[William Tyndale,transl.],The Newe Testamẽt[…](Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany:Peter Schöffer],→OCLC,The Gospell off S. Lukexxij:[55–57],folios cxiiii, recto – cxiiii, verso:
- When they had kyndled a fyre in the myddes of the palys / and were sett doune to gedder / Peter alsoo sate doune amonge them. And won off thewenches/ as he sate / beholde him by the light and sett goode eyesight on him / and sayde: This same was also with hym. Then he denyed hym sayinge: Woman I knowe hym nott.
- 1819,Jedediah Cleishbotham[pseudonym;Walter Scott], chapter V, inTales of My Landlord, Third Series.[…],volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh:[…][James Ballantyne and Co.] forArchibald Constable and Co.;London:Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,[…];Hurst, Robinson, and Co.[…],→OCLC,page150:
- "I fear there is a chase; I think I hear three or four galloping together; I am sure I hear more horses than one." / "Pooh, pooh, it is thewenchof the house that is clattering to the well in herpattens;[…]."
- 1881,Henry Inman,“A Legend of Pawnee Rock; or How the Life of an Old Trapper was Saved by a Bird”, inStories of the Old Santa Fe Trail[1],Kansas City, Mo.: Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, pages89 and 91:
- [W]orking for Colonel Boone a the time—and two more men whose names I disremember now, and a niggerwenchwe had for a cook.[…]So I got onto one of the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them while thewenchwas a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the outfit was a fixin the saddles and greasing the wagon.
- (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.
- 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.
- (archaic)Aprostitute.
- (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
[edit]Descendants
[edit]- Sranan Tongo:wenke
Translations
[edit](archaic) girl or young woman
|
(archaic) girl or young woman of a lower class
(archaic or dialectal)term of endearment for a female person
(archaic) woman servant
(archaic) promiscuous woman
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(archaic) prostitute
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Verb
[edit]wench(third-person singular simple presentwenches,present participlewenching,simple past and past participlewenched)
- (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
[edit]Conjugation ofwench
infinitive | (to)wench | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-personsingular | wench | wenched | |
2nd-personsingular | wench,wenchest† | wenched,wenchedst† | |
3rd-personsingular | wenches,wencheth† | wenched | |
plural | wench | ||
subjunctive | wench | wenched | |
imperative | wench | — | |
participles | wenching | wenched |
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]to frequent prostitutes
|
References
[edit]- ^“wench(e,n.”,inMED Online,Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^“wenchel,n.”,inMED Online,Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
- ^“wench,n.”,inOED Online,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1926;“wench,n.”,inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
- ^“wench,v.”,inOED Online,Oxford, Oxfordshire:Oxford University Press,1926;“wench,v.”,inLexico,Dictionary.com;Oxford University Press,2019–2022.
Anagrams
[edit]Middle English
[edit]Noun
[edit]wench
- Alternative form ofwenche
- 1387–1400,Geoffrey Chaucer,“The Manciples Tale”,inThe Canterbury Tales,[Westminster:William Caxton,published1478],→OCLC;republished in [William Thynne], editor,The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed,[…],[London]:[…][Richard Graftonfor]Iohn Reynes[…],1542,→OCLC,folio xcix, recto:
- There is but litel difference truely / Betwyxt a wyfe, that is of hye degre / If of her body dishoneſt ſhe be / And a poorewenche,other than this / If it ſo be they werke bothe amys / But for the gentyl is in eſtate aboue / She ſhal be called his lady and his loue / And for that tother is a poore woman / She ſhal be called hiswench,or hislemmã[...]
- (pleaseadd an English translationof this quotation)
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- en:Appearance
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