queen

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A woman who rules a country, usually because she was born into a royal family.

   The queen waved to the crowd from the balcony.

2. 2
   noun

   The wife of a king.

   The king and queen attended the ceremony together.

3. 3
   noun

   A female insect, such as a bee or ant, that lays eggs for the whole colony.

   The queen bee lays thousands of eggs each day.

4. 4
   noun

   A powerful piece in the game of chess.

   She captured my queen and won the game.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Queen comes from Old English cwēn, originally meaning “wife,” especially the wife of a king or another important man. It was related to Old English cwene, “woman,” which developed separately into quean, once a derogatory term for an impudent woman or prostitute.

From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“wife, 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 que…

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
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