wench

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English wench, wenche (“female baby; girl (especially unmarried); maiden, young woman; bondwoman; serving maid; beloved, sweetheart; concubine, mistress; harlot, prostitute”) [and other forms], a shortened form of Middle English wenchel (“girl; maiden; child”), from Old English wenċel, winċel (“child; servant; slave”), from Proto-Germanic *wankilą, from Proto-Germanic *wankijaną (“to sway; waver”). The English word is cognate with Old High German wenken (“to waver; to give way, yield”), wankōn (“to totter”). The verb and adjective are derived from the noun.

noun

1. (archaic, now dialectal or humorous, possibly offensive) A girl or young woman, especially a buxom or lively one.
   Jane played the role of a wench in an Elizabethan comedy.
   We got wenches on the benches, and bitties with titties Housing all girlies from city to city 15 November 1986, Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin (lyrics and music), “Rhymin & Stealin”, in Licensed to Ill, performed by the Beastie Boys
   "Can't we use a real girl? Can't Maria just play along?" "She's at the movies with Chanel." "Lucky wench. Why can't Ryan just be with a guy? Aren't you offended?" "Just doing what Rain said to do. And actually, a little, yeah." 25 September 2012, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 262 - Too Funny
   1. (specifically) A girl or young woman of a lower class.
      The woman is a brazen, hard-looking wench, a female pedlar, who hawks needles, thread, cheap looking-glasses, pious pictures, almanacs, hair-pins, ballads, of the most humble pattern, through the country. 1871, W[illiam] Barry, “The Barony of Threeneheila within Drum”, in Moorland and Stream. With Notes and Prose Idyls on Shooting and Trout Fishing, London: Tinsley Brothers,[…], →OCLC, page 25
2. (archaic or dialectal) Used as a term of endearment for a female person, especially a wife, daughter, or girlfriend: darling, sweetheart.
3. (archaic) A woman servant; a maidservant.
   … working for Colonel Boone a the time--and two more men whose names I disremember now, and a nigger wench we had for a cook. … So I got onto one of the ponies and led the others down to the spring near camp to water them while the wench was a getting breakfast, and some o' the rest o' the outfit was a fixin the saddles and greasing the wagon. 1881, Henry Inman, “A Legend of Pawnee Rock; or How the life of an old trapper was saved by a bird”, in Stories of the Old Santa Fe Trail, Kansas City, Missouri: Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, page 89,91
4. (archaic) A promiscuous woman; a mistress (“other woman in an extramarital relationship”).
   Whilſt Men have theſe Ambitious Fancies, And wanton Wenches read Romances, Our Sex will—What? out with it: Lye: And Theirs in equal Strains reply. Originally printed for Jacob Tonson as an anonymous, double-sided pamphlet. 1702, Mat[thew] Prior, “To a Young Gentleman in Love. A Tale.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, 2nd edition, London: Printed for Jacob Tonson,[…], published 1709, →OCLC, page 103
5. (archaic) A prostitute.
6. (US, archaic or historical) A black woman (of any age), especially if in a condition of servitude.
   Nancy Basset, 28, likely wench, mulatto Proved to be free. Certified free as per General Birch Certificate. Patience Jackson, 23, very likely wench, mulatto Says she was born free Rhode Island. Certified free as per General Birch Certificate. 1776–1787, Carmelita Robertson, Elizabeth E. D. Eve, Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia: Tracing the History of Tracadie Loyalists, 1776–87 (Curatorial Report; no. 91), Halifax, N.S.: History Section, Nova Scotia Museum, Department of Tourism & Culture, published 2000
   A colored girl […] was fined ten dollars in the Freedman's Court yesterday, for being drunk and disorderly. Not having the money in her possession, she requested that a guard be sent with her to her residence to procure it. The Provost allowed a guard to wait on the wench, who, as soon as she found herself inside of her own door, locked it, and left the poor guard outside without the money. He returned to court without either the wench or fine. 2 March 1866, “Sharp Wench”, in The Appeal, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Minn.: Parker, Burgett & Hardy, →OCLC, page 3; quoted in Hannah Rosen, “Notes”, in Terror in the Heart of Freedom: Citizenship, Sexual Violence, and the Meaning of Race in the Postemancipation South (Gender and American Culture), Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2009, footnote 186, page 282
   So complete was this illusion, claims [Eric] Lott, that many audience members, including Mark Twain's mother, believed they were seeing authentic, biologically black performers on New York stages. Of course, wench characters seem to especially test the bounds of authentic performance. Played by men, wenches were nonetheless read by audiences as beautiful women: … [E]xtant photographs and engravings of wench performers do not always represent them as blacked up, […] In antebellum minstrel shows, wench songs were most often sung about mulatto women rather than by them. 2014, Kirsten Pullen, “Light Egyptian: Lena Horne and the Representation of Black Femininity”, in Like a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, pages 106–107

verb

1. (intransitive, archaic, now humorous) To frequent prostitutes; to whore; also, to womanize.
   This is ſure ſome hide-bound ſtudent, that proportions his expence by his penſion; and wencheth at Tottenham court for ſtewed prunes and cheeſcakes. 1638, Thomas Nabbes, The Bride, a Comedie.[…], London: Printed by R[ichard] H[odgkinson] for Laurence Blaikelocke[…], published 1640, →OCLC; republished in Playes, Maskes, Epigrams, Elegies, and Epithalamiums.[…], London: Printed by I. Dawson,[…], 1639, →OCLC, Act II, scene iv
   He [a man under the influence of the planet Mars] hath a marke or ſcar in his face, is broad-ſhouldered, a ſturdy ſtrong body, being bold and proud, given to mocke, ſcorne, quarrell, drinke, game and wench: which you may eaſily know by the Signe he is in; if in the houſe of ♀ he wencheth, if in ☿s he ſteals, … 1647, William Lilly, “Another Briefe Description of the Shapes and Formes of the Planets”, in Christian Astrology Modestly Treated of in Three Books.[…], London: Printed by Tho[mas] Brudenell for John Partridge and Humph[rey] Blunden,[…], →OCLC, page 85
   In ſhort, Ned has drank, wenched, fought, and beggared himſelf, through an exalted ſolicitude for the general emolument, and is now cloſe pent up in one of our priſons, out of a pure and diſintereſted regard for the welfare of ſociety. 1767, [Hugh Kelly], “Saturday, May 1”, in The Babler. Containing a Careful Selection from those Entertaining and Interesting Essays, which have Given the Public so much Satisfaction under that Title during a Course of Four Years, in Owen’s Weekly Chronicle, volume II, number LXVI, London: Printed for J[ohn] Newbery,[…]; L. Hawes, W. Clarke, and R. Collins,[…]; and J. Harrison,[…], →OCLC
   I know a clergyman who, having enjoyed for several years the world's good opinion, was turned off, through a ridiculous pique, by a young nobleman to whom he was preceptor. […] He drank, wenched, and was so complete a gambler, that, had he kept his old situation much longer, he would have ruined the principles of his pupil. 1807 March, [Charles] Dibdin, “Dibdin’s Tour. [Letter 1 … Introductory.]”, in The Polyanthos, volume IV, Boston, Mass.: Published by J[oseph] T[inker] Buckingham,[…], →OCLC, footnote, page 247
   Bundy's reasons for leaving the Cape are obscure. He drinks, but that doesn't dim his powers. He wenches. But so do we all. 1972, Philip K[indred] Dick, chapter 1, in We Can Build You (DAW SF Books; no. 14), New York, N.Y.: DAW Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperVoyager, HarperCollins, 2008, page 11
   Already, you see, I had begun to acquire a taste for rakery and wenching among the London debutantes. 1979 October, Roald Dahl, chapter 1, in My Uncle Oswald, London: Michael Joseph; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2011