Kebse

18th-century learned borrowing from Middle High German kebse, kebese, from Old High German kebisa, chebisa, from Proto-West Germanic *kabisi, from Proto-Germanic *kabisjō (“concubine”). Only the compounds Kebsweib and Kebskind were inherited. Cognate with Dutch kēves, Old English ċiefes.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeːpsə/

• Audio:

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Kebse f (genitive Kebse, plural Kebsen)

1. (dated) concubine

   Synonyms: Konkubine, Mätresse, Beischläferin, Kebsweib

   • 1987, Karlheinz Deschner, Opus Diaboli. Fünfzehn unversöhnliche Essays über die Arbeit im Weinberg des Herrn, Reinbek: Rowohlt, pages 93–94:

     Trotz strikten Verbots erlaubten Bischöfe haufenweise ihren Priestern Kebsen für einen «Hurenzins», den man sogar von den unbeweibten verlangte, ja, von diesen – in Norwegen und Island – doppelt.

     In spite of strict prohibition bishops granted their priests paramours for a “whore levy”, which one even demanded from the womanless, or even – in Norway and Iceland – twice.

• Kebsehe
• Kebskind (“bastard”)

• “Kebse” in Duden online
• Friedrich Kluge (1989) “Kebse”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 364