Definitions and meaning of queen
queen
Alternative forms
- queene, quene, queyne (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”).
Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Norwegian kvinne (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”).
Related to and possibly merged with and/or absorbed some senses of English quean, from Middle English quene, from Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English regina). Doublet of quean and gyne.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kwiːn/, [kʰw̥iːn], enPR: kwēn
-
- Rhymes: -iːn
- Homophone: quean
Noun
queen (plural queens)
- The wife, consort, or widow of a king.
- Synonyms: queen consort, Regina
- Hypernym: royal
- Hyponyms: queen consort, queen dowager
- Holonym: royal family
- Coordinate terms: emperor, empress, king, prince, princess
- A female monarch.
- Synonyms: queen regnant, Regina
- Hypernyms: monarch, royal, sovereign
- Holonym: royal family
- Coordinate terms: emperor, empress, king, prince, princess
- A woman whose pre-eminence, power, or forcefulness is comparable to that of a queen.
- Synonym: goddess
- (Christianity) The Virgin Mary (especially in formulations such as Queen of Heaven, Queen of Glory).
- Synonyms: (archaic) advocatrix, Blessed Virgin, Blessed Virgin Mary, (chiefly historical) Christotokos, lady, Madonna, Mother of God, Mother of Mercy, Our Lady, Our Lady of Sorrows, Queen of Heaven, Saint Mary, Star of the Sea, (chiefly Eastern Christianity) Theotokos, Virgin Mary
- An excellent woman.
- A woman pre-eminent in a particular group or field.
- (slang, originally US) An attractive woman; a female partner in a romantic relationship.
- Synonym: honey
- Something regarded as the greatest of its kind or as having pre-eminence or power comparable to that of a queen over a given area.
- Referring to one of several items used in tabletop games:
- A chess piece that, under contemporary rules, is the most powerful, able to move any number of spaces horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
- Synonyms: (slang, vulgar, offensive) bitch, (slang) dame, (slang, rare) lady, (slang) old lady, (slang, vulgar, offensive) whore
- Hypernyms: chess piece, chessman
- Holonym: chess set
- Coordinate terms: bishop, castle, king, knight, pawn, rook
- A playing card with a depiction of a queen on it, generally ranking next below the king and above the jack in a given suit.
- Synonyms: (vulgar, offensive, informal) bitch, (slang) cowgirl, (slang) girl, (slang) lady, (slang) mop squeezer
- Hypernyms: court card, face card
- Hyponym: Queen Bess
- Holonyms: deck of cards, pack of cards
- Coordinate terms: jack, king, knave
- A red disk that is the most valuable piece in the Asian game of carrom.
- A reproductive female insect in a hive, such as an ant, bee, termite or wasp.
- Synonym: (obsolete) king
- Hypernyms: bug, insect
- Hyponym: queen bee
- (obsolete) A type of flatfish, specifically the lemon sole.
- (rare) A queen apple.
- Hypernym: apple
- (originally UK) A queen scallop.
- (construction, obsolete) Ellipsis of queen post.
- Coordinate term: king
- (now chiefly historical) A type of large roofing slate.
- (slang, sometimes derogatory) A homosexual man, especially one regarded as effeminate.
- Synonyms: fag, faggot, fairy, fruit, Mary, nancy, Nancy Dawson, nancyboy, nelly, pansy, ponce, poof, poofter, shirtlifter, twink; see also Thesaurus:effeminate man, Thesaurus:male homosexual
- Hypernym: gay
- An adult female cat capable of breeding.
- Hypernym: cat
- Coordinate terms: tom, tomcat
- Ellipsis of queen olive.
- (LGBT, slang) Ellipsis of drag queen.
- (attributive, originally Canada, US) Pertaining to a queen-size bed or queen-size bedding.
- Synonyms: queen-size, queen-sized
- A monarch butterfly (Danaus spp., especially Danaus gilippus).
Usage notes
- (homosexual man): The term can be either derogatory or a self-identification. (Compare nigger.)
- (ellipsis of drag queen): Some of the people who were historically (in the late 1960s and 1970s) described as “queens” or “drag queens” or “street queens” are now sometimes considered transgender, especially when their gender identity is female or non-binary/genderqueer rather than male. Some people, like Sylvia Rivera, self-identified as both a “transgender person” and a “street queen”. Drag queens, too, can have any gender identity.
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
See also
Verb
queen (third-person singular simple present queens, present participle queening, simple past and past participle queened)
- (intransitive, obsolete) To act the part of a queen; to behave imperiously; to queen it.
- (transitive) To make a queen or (figuratively) to give the status of a queen.
- (chess) To promote a pawn to a queen.
- (beekeeping) To be the queen bee of a colony.
- (beekeeping) To provide with a new queen bee.
- Antonym: dequeen
- (BDSM, slang, transitive, usually of a woman) To sit on a person’s face to receive oral sex, typically while straddling the person’s head.
- Synonyms: face-sit, king
Derived terms
- queener
- queening square
- queening stool
Related terms
Translations
See also
References
- Kent Patterson (1971) “Checkschmuck! The Slang of the Chess Player”, in American Speech, volume 46, numbers 3–4, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 231–236.
- “queen, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2021.
- “queen”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Jonathon Green (2024) “queen n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
queen
- Alternative form of quene (“queen”)
Yola
Etymology
From Middle English quene, from Old English cwēn, from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni.
Pronunciation
Noun
queen
- queen
References
- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 96
Source: wiktionary.org