▪ I. cuckold, n.1
(ˈkʌkəld)
Forms: 3 cukeweld, 4–5 coke-, 4 koke-, cocke-, couke-, kukwold(e, 5 cok-, cukewalde, 5–6 cok-, cocold(e, 6 cock-, coke-, cowck-, cuckold(e, cucquold, cuckould, (cockhole, cookcold), 6–7 cuckhold, (7 coockould, cucculd, cuckhole, cuckot), 6– cuckold.
[ME. cukeweld, cokewold (3 syllables), adaptation of an OF. word which appears in 1463 as cucuault, pointing to an earlier *cucuald, f. OF. cucu cuckoo (in 15–17 c. cocu, 16–17th c. coucou, cuckoo and cuckold; mod.F. coucou cuckoo, cocu cuckold, also, dialectally, cuckoo), with the appellative and pejorative suffix -ald, -auld, -ault, -aud = It. -aldo, f. Ger. -wald: see Diez, Gramm. Lang. Rom. (1874) II. 346. (The Sw. dial. kukkuvall is from F.; mod.Icel. kokkáll from English.)
Another OF. synonym was coucuol, couquiol, with dimin. ending, app. from Prov.: cf. OPr. coguiol, mod.Pr. couguieu, couquieu, couguou, cuckoo and cuckold. The current F. equivalent is the simple form cocu. The origin of the sense is supposed to be found in the cuckoo's habit of laying its egg in another bird's nest; in Ger., gauch and kuckuk, and in Pr., cogotz, were applied to the adulterer as well as the husband of the adulteress, and Littré cites an assertion of the same double use in French; in English, where cuckold has never been the name of the bird, we do not find it applied to the adulterer.]
1. A derisive name for the husband of an unfaithful wife.
| a 1250 Owl & Night. 1544 Heo nah iweld, Þa heo hine makie cukeweld. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 140 Hose wilneþ hire to wyue..Bote he beo A Cokewold I-kore, cut of boþe myn Eres. c 1386 Chaucer Miller's Prol. 44 Leue brother Osewold, Who hath no wyf, he is no Cokewold [v.r. coukekukwold]. c 1425 Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 651/29 Hic ninarius, cokwalde. c 1440 Gesta Rom. xcii. 421 (Add. MS.) Thy false monke hathe a-way my wife, and made me a Cokewolde. 1483 Cath. Angl. 85 To make Cukewalde [A. Cwkwalde], curucare. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 105 Is thy husband a cockold. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. x. 11 Without regard..of husband old, Whom she hath vow'd to dub a fayre cucquold. 1650 Weldon Crt. Jas. I, 111 Hee was..a Cuckold, having a very pretty wench to his Wife. 1728 Young Love Fame i. Wks. (1757) 81 And the brib'd cuckold..glories in his gilded horn. 1845 Ford Handbk. Spain i. 46 The Spaniards in the sixteenth century mounted unrepining cuckolds..on asses. |
b. attrib.| 1718 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. lviii. II. 93 A beaten wife and cuckold swain Had jointly cursed the marriage chain. 1789 Burns ‘Oh, Willie brewed’, Who first shall rise to gang awa A cuckold coward loon is he. |
2. A book-name of the American cow-bird,
Molothrus ater, a member of a genus of birds which, like the cuckoo, lay their eggs in other birds' nests. (
Century Dict.)
3. Short for
cuckold-fish: see 4.
4. Comb. † cuckold-fish, a fish with horn-like projections,
prob. the cow-fish (
Ostracion quadricorne);
† cuckold-fly (see
quot.);
cuckold-maker, ‘one that makes a practice of corrupting wives’ (J.); so
cuckold-making;
† cuckold's chorister, the cuckoo;
† Cuckold's haven,
point, a point on the Thames, below Greenwich; formerly used allusively;
† cuckoldshire (
humorous) cuckoldom;
† cuckold's-increase, a W. Indian leguminous plant,
Vigna unguiculata;
cuckold's-knot,
neck, a knot or loop made in a rope by crossing it over itself and seizing or binding it together with a cord at the point of crossing;
† cuckold's-row (
humorous), cuckoldom;
cuckold-tree, an American Acacia,
A. cornigera.
| 1757 B. Martin Misc. Corr. II. 544 The Piscis bicornis, vulgarly called the *Cuckold-Fish. |
| 1750 G. Hughes Barbadoes 83 *Cuckold Fly..is of the Beetle kind, of about half an inch long, and of a dark-red colour. |
| 1580 Baret Alv. C 1726 A *cuckould maker, mœchus. 1682 Southerne Loyal Brother ii. i, Soldier. And I am a cuckold-maker. |
| 1681 Otway Soldier's Fort. iii. i, A bloody *Cuckold-making Scoundrel. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xi. x, Young gentlemen who profess the art of Cuckold-making. |
| 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier (1871) 6 When the *Cuckold's chorister began to bewray April-Gentlemen with his never changed notes. |
| 1606 Day Ile of Guls (N.), A young girle, married to an old man, doth [long] to run her husband ashore at *Cuckolds haven. |
| c 1537 Thersites in Hazl. Dodsley I. 424 All the court of conscience in *Cuckoldshire. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 292 *Cuckold's-Increase. This plant is cultivated in all parts of Jamaica, and the pulse generally made use of at every gentleman's table. |
| 1847–78 Halliwell, *Cuckold's-knot, a noose tied so that the ends point lengthways. |
| 1846 Young Naut. Dict., *Cuckold's neck, a knot by which a rope is secured to a spar, the two parts of the rope crossing each other and being seized together. |
| 1757 Poor Robin (N.), If you are minded for to wed..Let her be..chaste..Lest if at *Cuckolds point you land, etc. |
| a 1500 Cokwolds Daunce 197 in Hazl. E.P. Poetry I. 46, I may dance in the *cokwold row. 1668 L'Estrange Vis. Quevedo (1708) 69 Many a brave Fellow lives in Cuckold's-Row. |
| 1815 J. Donn Hortus Cantab. 327 Mimosa cornigera, *Cuckold-tree. S. America. |
▪ II. † ˈcuckold, n.2 Obs. Variant of
cockle.
1. = cockle1 3, the burdock.
| 1698 Sir R. Southwell in Phil. Trans. XX. 89 What they call Cuckold-Burs, which stick on the Cloths. 1821 T. Nuttall Trav. Arkansa ii. 58 The cornfields, at this season of the year, are so over-run with cuckold-burrs (Xanthium Strumarium)..as to prove extremely troublesome to woollen clothes. |
2. = cockle2, the shell-fish.
| 1782 P. H. Bruce Mem. xii. 424 Their shell-fish are..wilkes, cuckolds, craw-fish, lobsters, crabs. |
▪ III. cuckold, v. (
ˈkʌkəld)
[f. cuckold n.1] 1. trans. To make a cuckold of; to dishonour (a husband) by adultery; said
a. of a paramour;
b. of a wife.
| a. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxx, Few will judge, I winne, If it shall come in question, that to cockhole [1612 cuckhole] him were sinne. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. v. 138. 1687 Settle Refl. Dryden 89 An insolent Fellow that he fears Cuckolds him. a 1754 Fielding New Way to Keep Wks. 1775 II. 171 It will be believed that I intended to cuckold your uncle. |
| b. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iv. i. 211 Oth. I will chop her into Messes: Cuckold me? Iago. Oh, 'tis foule in her. 1710 Hearne Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.) III. 20 A Wife who takes care to have him cuckol'd every day. 1822 T. Taylor Apuleius 194 We heard a pleasant narration about a poor man being cuckolded by his wife. |
† 2. fig. To cheat, trick.
Obs.| 1644–7 Cleveland Char. Lond. Diurn. 5 This is..hee, that Cuckolds the Generall in his Commission: for he stalkes with Essex, and shoots under his belly. |