cuckold
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L311003 on Wikidata ↗verb
- an unfaithful wife who thereby makes a cuckold of her husband
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈkʌ.kəʊld/ / /ˈkʌ.kəld/ / /ˈkʌ.koʊld/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, from Old French cucuault; a compound of cucu (“cuckoo”) and Old French -auld. The word references the behavior of cuckoo birds where they lay their eggs in another bird’s nest. Cucu is either a directly derived onomatopoeic derivative of the cuckoo's call, or from Latin cucūlus. Latin cucūlus is a compound of onomatopoeic cucu (compare Late Latin cucus) and the diminutive suffix -ulus. Old French -auld is from Frankish *-wald (similar suffixes are used in some personal names within other Germanic languages as well; compare English Harold, for instance), a suffixal use of Frankish *wald (“wielder, ruler, leader”), from Proto-Germanic *waldaz (compare German Gewalt, from the related *waldą (“power, might”)), from *waldaną (“to rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to be strong; to rule”). Appears in Middle English in noun form circa 1250 as cokewald. First known use of the verb form is 1589.
- A man married to an adulterous spouse, especially when he is unaware or unaccepting of the fact.
“If I never marry, I shall never be a cuckold.”
“You see, it happened that two lieutenantesses were fighting, because their husbands had made cuckolds of them ...”
- A man who is attracted to or aroused by the sexual infidelity of a partner.
- A West Indian plectognath fish, Rhinesomus triqueter.
- The scrawled cowfish, Acanthostracion quadricornis and allied species.
- Synonym of fringed filefish.
verb
Etymology: From Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, from Old French cucuault; a compound of cucu (“cuckoo”) and Old French -auld. The word references the behavior of cuckoo birds where they lay their eggs in another bird’s nest. Cucu is either a directly derived onomatopoeic derivative of the cuckoo's call, or from Latin cucūlus. Latin cucūlus is a compound of onomatopoeic cucu (compare Late Latin cucus) and the diminutive suffix -ulus. Old French -auld is from Frankish *-wald (similar suffixes are used in some personal names within other Germanic languages as well; compare English Harold, for instance), a suffixal use of Frankish *wald (“wielder, ruler, leader”), from Proto-Germanic *waldaz (compare German Gewalt, from the related *waldą (“power, might”)), from *waldaną (“to rule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- (“to be strong; to rule”). Appears in Middle English in noun form circa 1250 as cokewald. First known use of the verb form is 1589.
- To make a cuckold or cuckquean of someone by committing adultery, or by seducing their partner or spouse.
“"Gave her anything she wanted - her own car, her own bank account, a free leg to amuse herself as she pleased. Of course she hated him for it. Cuckolded him, too, naturally."”
“Most of the twelve Caesars were rumored to have been licentious as both adulterers and homosexuals (not that the two were mutually exclusive, as will be seen), and Gaius and Nero were both supposed to have been adulterers, active homosexuals, and pathics. According to Suetonius, Julius Caesar was cuckolded by Clodius (Iul. 6, 74) but was himself so noted an adulterer that Pompey (lul. 50) called him "Aegisthus" (mock epic again); and his foreign affairs were the talk of Rome and of the army (Iul, 49–52).”