cuckold

Etymology

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.

noun

1. A man married to an unfaithful wife, especially when he is unaware or unaccepting of the fact.
   If I never marry, I shall never be a cuckold. 1546, François Rabelais, The Third Book, Chapter 36
   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). 2001, Goran V. Stanivukovic, Ovid and the Renaissance Body, page 178
   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.

verb

1. (transitive) To make a cuckold or cuckquean of someone by being unfaithful, or by seducing their partner or spouse.
   Hey, I would never cuckold one of my friends. That’s way not cool. 2008, Jeph Jacques, Questionable Content 1319: The Flimsiest of Logic