cuckold

Meanings

Noun

• A man married to an unfaithful wife, especially when he is unaware or unaccepting of the fact.
• A man who is attracted to or aroused by the sexual infidelity of a partner.
• A West Indian plectognath fish, Rhinesomus triqueter (species).
• The scrawled cowfish, Acanthostracion quadricornis (species) and allied species.

Verb

• To make a cuckold or cuckquean of someone by being unfaithful, or by seducing their partner or spouse.

Related

Similar words

• Ostracion triqueter (species), smooth trunkfish

Origin

• From Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, from Old French cucuault; a compound of cucu (some varieties of the cuckoo bird lay their eggs in another’s nest) and Old French -auld. Cucu is either a directly derived 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.
• -auld is from Frankish *-wald (similar suffixes are used in some personal names within other Germanic languages as well; confer Harold, for instance), a suffixal use of Frankish *wald ("wielder, ruler, leader"), from Proto-Germanic *waldaz (compare German Gewalt, from the related *waldą), from *waldaną, 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.