quean

/kwiːn/

Etymology

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”).

quean means A woman, now especially an impudent or disreputable woman; a prostitute. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.

quean is pronounced /kwiːn/.

Why “quean” is a great word

QUEAN — [Noun] A woman, especially one regarded as impudent, disreputable, or sexually promiscuous. 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"). Unlike "queen," which elevates the same root to sovereignty, or "harlot," which confines her to a specific trade, "quean" is a blunt instrument of censure, conflating low birth with moral transgression. It evokes the scorn in a village elder's glance, the servant girl's defiant laugh in the hall, and the rough touch of chapped hands on a tavern tankard—a dark, familiar shadow of the very word for woman, twisted by contempt into a weapon.

noun

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.”