cuckold
Meanings
- A man married to an adulterous spouse, 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.
- The scrawled cowfish, Acanthostracion quadricornis and allied species.
- Synonym of fringed filefish.
- To make a cuckold or cuckquean of someone by committing adultery, or by seducing their partner or spouse.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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.