bawd
English
Alternative forms
- baud
- baude
Etymology
From Middle English bawde, baude, from Old French baud (“bold, lively, jolly, gay”). Doublet of bold.
Pronunciation
Noun
bawd (plural bawds)
- (now archaic or historical) A person who keeps a house of prostitution, or procures women for prostitution; a procurer, a madame.
- 1717, Ned Ward, British Wonders:
- As Whores decay'd and past their Labours, / Turn Bawds, and so assist their Neighbours.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author’s Oeconomy and Happy Life among the Houyhnhnms. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 301:
- […] here were no Gibers, Cenſurers, Backbiters, Pick-pockets, Highwaymen, Houſebreakers, Attorneys, Bawds, Buffoons, Gameſters, Politicians, Wits, ſplenetick tedious Talkers, Controvertiſts, Raviſhers, Murderers, Robbers, Virtuoſo's; […]
- 2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 76:
- Compared with their opponents, bawds and their associates increasingly had deeper pockets and greater confidence in manipulating the law.
- (obsolete, by extension) A person who facilitates an immoral act, especially one of a sexual nature.
- 1594 (first publication), Christopher Marlow[e], The Trovblesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edvvard the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:
- In ſaying this thou wrongſt me Gaueſton, / Iſt not enough that thou corrupts my Lord, / And art a Bawd to his affections, / But thou muſt call mine honour thus in queſtion?
- A lewd person.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Welsh
Etymology
From Middle Welsh mawd < Proto-Celtic *mā-to- < Proto-Indo-European *mē-. Compare Breton meud and Cornish meus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈbau̯d/
Noun
bawd m or f (plural bodiau)
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