wench

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”) , 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 is derived from the noun.

• IPA^(key): /wɛnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛntʃ

wench (plural wenches)

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.

   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei , “ Chapter 14”, in , editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia , London: ">…] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC, folio 164, recto:

     I, like a tẽder harted vvench, ſkriked out for feare of the divell.

   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 247, column 2:

     hee weepes like a wench that had ſhed her / milke, he hath confeſt himſelfe to Morgan, whom hee ſuppoſes to be a Friar,

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, 2 Samuel 17:17, column 1:

     Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz ſtayed by En-rogel: (for they might not be ſeene to come into the citie) and a wench went and told them: and they went, and tolde king Dauid.

   • , Homer, “Book I”, in Geo Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. , London: Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets,  with Introduction and Notes, by W Cooke Taylor, In Two Volumes.">…], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., , 1843, →OCLC, page 35:

     Beside, this I affirm—afford / Impression of it in thy soul—I will not use my sword / On thee or any for a wench, unjustly though thou tak'st / The thing thou gav'st;

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1726 October 28, , “A Continuation of the State of England; so Well Governed by a Queen as to Need no First Minister. ”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume II, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 248:

     He is uſually governed by a decayed Wench, or favourite Footman, who are the Tunnels through which all Graces are conveyed, and may properly be called, in the laſt Reſort, the Governors of the Kingdom.

   • 1887, William Black, “New Quarters”, in Sabina Zembra  In Three Volumes">…], volume III, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 22:

     He was received by the daughter of the house, a pretty, buxom, blue-eyed little wench, who seemed to regard the tall, bronzed, black-eyed stranger with much and evident favour.

   • 1986 November 15, Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin, “Rhymin & Stealin”, in Licensed to Ill, performed by the Beastie Boys:

     We got wenches on the benches, and bitties with titties / Housing all girlies from city to city

   • 2012 September 25, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 262 - Too Funny:

     "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."

   1. (specifically) A girl or young woman of a lower class.
      • 1871, W 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:

        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.

2. (archaic or dialectal) Used as a term of endearment for a female person, especially a wife, daughter, or girlfriend: darling, sweetheart.
   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, , “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 226, column 2:

     When I am dead, good Wench, / Let me be vs'd with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue:

   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Third Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1857, →OCLC, page 126:

     The mother held her tight, / Saying hard between her teeth—'Why wench, why wench, / The squire speaks to you now—the squire's too good; / He means to set you up, and comfort us. / Be mannerly at least.'

3. (archaic) A woman servant; a maidservant.
   • 1526, , The Newe Testamẽt  (Tyndale Bible), , →OCLC, The Gospell off S. Luke xxij:, folios cxiiii, recto – cxiiii, verso:

     When they had kyndled a fyre in the myddes of the palys / and were sett doune to gedder / Peter alsoo sate doune amonge them. And won off the wenches / as he sate / beholde him by the light and sett goode eyesight on him / and sayde: This same was also with hym. Then he denyed hym sayinge: Woman I knowe hym nott.

   • 1819, Jedediah Cleishbotham , chapter V, in Tales of My Landlord, Third Series.  In Four Volumes.">…], volume I (The Bride of Lammermoor), Edinburgh: ">…] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, ; Hurst, Robinson, and Co. , →OCLC, page 150:

     "I fear there is a chase; I think I hear three or four galloping together; I am sure I hear more horses than one." / "Pooh, pooh, it is the wench of the house that is clattering to the well in her pattens;  ."

   • 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, Mo.: Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, pages 89 and 91:

     orking 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.

4. (archaic) A promiscuous woman; a mistress (“other woman in an extramarital relationship”).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:promiscuous woman, Thesaurus:mistress

   • c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo, edited by Tho Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. , London: I B for Nicholas Vavasour, , published 1633, →OCLC, Act IV, signature G2, verso:

     2 . Thou haſt committed— / Bar. Fornication? but that was in another Country; And beſides, the Wench is dead.

   • 1702, Mat 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:

     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.

   • 1712 January 15 (Gregorian calendar), , “FRIDAY, January 4, 1711–1712”, in The Spectator, number 266; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume III, New York, N.Y.: D Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 329:

     It must not thought a digression from my intended speculation, to talk of bawds in a discourse upon wenches; for a woman of the town is not thoroughly and properly such, without having gone through the education of one of these houses.

     The spelling has been modernized.

5. (archaic) A prostitute.
6. (US, archaic or historical) A black woman (of any age), especially if in a condition of servitude.

   Synonym: (dated, literary, now offensive) negress

   • 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, →ISBN:

     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.

   • 1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume I, Boston, Mass.: John P Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC, page 100:

     Now, I bought a gal once, when I was in the trade,—a tight, likely wench she was, too, and quite considerable smart—

   • 1866 March 2, “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, →ISBN, footnote 186, page 282:

     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.

   • 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, →ISBN, pages 106–107:

     So complete was this illusion, claims 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: 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.

• Sranan Tongo: wenke

wench (third-person singular simple present wenches, present participle wenching, simple past and past participle wenched)

1. (intransitive, archaic, now humorous) To frequent prostitutes; to whore; also, to womanize.
   • 1638, Thomas Nabbes, The Bride, a Comedie. , London: Printed by R H 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:

     This is ſure ſome hide-bound ſtudent, that proportions his expence by his penſion; and wencheth at Tottenham court for ſtewed prunes and cheeſcakes.

   • 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 Brudenell for John Partridge and Humph Blunden, , →OCLC, page 85:

     He 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,

   • 1767, , “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 Newbery, ; L. Hawes, W. Clarke, and R. Collins, ; and J. Harrison, , →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1807 March, Dibdin, “Dibdin’s Tour. ”, in The Polyanthos, volume IV, Boston, Mass.: Published by J T Buckingham, , →OCLC, footnote, page 247:

     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.

   • 1822 May 29, , chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Nigel.  In Three Volumes.">…], volume III, Edinburgh: ">…] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 231:

     This Dalgarno does not drink so much, or swear so much, as his father; but he wenches, Geordie, and he breaks his word and oath baith.

   • 1972, Philip K 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, →ISBN, page 11:

     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.

   • 1979 October, Roald Dahl, chapter 1, in My Uncle Oswald, London: Michael Joseph, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2011, →ISBN:

     Already, you see, I had begun to acquire a taste for rakery and wenching among the London debutantes.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To act as a wench.
   • 1852, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, page 824:

     λαικάζω, to wench

• wencher

• chewn

wench

1. alternative form of wenche
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Manciples Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, , →OCLC; republished in , editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, , : Iohn Reynes , 1542, →OCLC, folio xcix, recto:

     There is but litel difference truely / Betwyxt a wyfe, that is of hye degre / If of her body dishoneſt ſhe be / And a poore wenche, other than this / If it ſo be they werke bothe amys / But for the gentyl is in eſtate aboue / She ſhal be called his lady and his loue / And for that tother is a poore woman / She ſhal be called his wench, or his lemmã

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)