cuckold

• cuckhold (obsolete)

From Middle English cokolde, cokewold, cockewold, kukwald, kukeweld, from Old French cucuault; a compound of cucu (“cuckoo”) (some varieties of the cuckoo bird lay their eggs in another’s nest) and Old French -auld. 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.

• Rhymes: -əʊld
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌ.kəʊld/, /ˈkʌ.kəld/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Audio (Southern England)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkʌ.koʊld/, /ˈkʌ.kəld/

cuckold (plural cuckolds)

1. A man married to an unfaithful wife, especially when he is unaware or unaccepting of the fact.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cuckold

   Coordinate terms: cuckquean; see also Thesaurus:cuckquean

   • 1546, François Rabelais, The Third Book, Chapter 36

     If I never marry, I shall never be a cuckold.

   • 2001, Goran V. Stanivukovic, Ovid and the Renaissance Body, page 178:

     In the early English drama, no play better approximates Ovid's contemptuous portrait of the willing cuckold than does Thomas Middleton's Chaste Maid in Cheapside (ca. 1612).

   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:cuckold.
2. A man who is paraphilically attracted to or aroused by the sexual infidelity of a partner.
3. A West Indian plectognath fish, Rhinesomus triqueter.
4. The scrawled cowfish, Acanthostracion quadricornis and allied species.

• (Rhinesomus triqueter): Ostracion triqueter, smooth trunkfish

cuckold (third-person singular simple present cuckolds, present participle cuckolding, simple past and past participle cuckolded)

1. (transitive) To make a cuckold or cuckquean of someone by being unfaithful, or by seducing their partner or spouse.

   Synonyms: cuck, horn, hornify, put horns on; see also Thesaurus:cuckoldize

   • 2008, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content 1319: The Flimsiest of Logic‎:

     Hey, I would never cuckold one of my friends. That’s way not cool.

• cuckold on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• smooth trunkfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• scrawled cowfish on Wikipedia.Wikipedia