queanOrigin of quean
Middle English queyne from Old English cwene, akin to cwen, queen and Gothic qino, woman from Indo-European base an unverified form gwen?, woman from source queen, Sanskrit gan?, goddess, Classical Greek Gyn?, woman
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noun
Origin of quean
Middle English quene from Old English cwene woman ; see gwen- in Indo-European roots.
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(plural queans)
From Middle English quene (“young, robust woman"), from Old English cwene (“woman, female serf"), from Proto-Germanic *kwenÇ (“woman"), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman"). Cognate with Dutch kween (“a barren woman, a barren cow"), Low German quene (“barren cow, heifer"), German dialectal Kan, Chan (“woman, wife"), Swedish kvinna (“woman"), Icelandic kona (“woman"), Gothic ðŒµðŒ¹ðŒ½ð‰ (qino, “female, woman"), ðŒµðŒ´ðŒ½ðƒ (qens, “wife"). More at queen.
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