Tracing the history of words is fascinating and profitable. We can learn a great deal about language and history by this sort of exercise. And beyond this, philology is a weapon.
I’ve been greatly amused by the resurgence in 2015 of the term cuckold, which until now has rather languished from lack of use. The word is a perfect description for the cowardice and insecurity of most of our current leaders and notables. Cuckservatives, and cucks in general, are eminently deserving of the scorn heaped on them.
I thought readers might be interested to know a bit about this history of the word, its various manifestations, and some illustrative quotes. Maybe this will inspire them to greater and greater heights of creativity.
I am fortunate, of course, to have the complete and unabridged Oxford English Dictionary; and it goes without saying that this little essay would have been impossible without it.
Historical Variations
I locate the entry for cuckold, and find that the word has had these historical variations from Middle English and Old French:
cukeweld, kukwolde, cukewalde, cucquold, cucculd, cuckhole, and cuckhot
The modern word cuckold is an adaptation from an Old French word that appears in 1463 as cucuault. Another Old French synonym was coucuol, or couquiol, which apparently came from Old Provencal in the form of coguiol, couguieu, or couquieu.
Significance
The word’s origin goes back to the name of the cuckoo bird. The bird’s practice was to lay its eggs in another bird’s nest. And the other bird, of course, would have to raise such young as its own.
Usage
As a derisive name for the husband of an unfaithful wife, the first recorded usages are from 1250 and 1362. In 1386, Chaucer’s Miller’s Prologue (44) used the word, in this context:
Leue brother Osewold, Who hath no wyf, he is no Cokewold
Here is a quote from 1440, from the Gesta Romanorum XCII.421:
Thy false monke hathe a-way my wife, and made me a Cokewolde.
In 1590, Spenser’s Fairie Queene even used the word, as follows (III.10.11):
Without regard…of husband old,
Whome she hath vow’d to dub a fayre cucquold.
Other varieties
Here is something that few know about. There is an animal called the cuckold-fish, which, we are told, is a fish “with horn-like projections” and apparently equivalent to the cow-fish.
There is a place called the Cuckold’s Haven, which is a point on the Thames in London, below Greenwich. I can only wonder how it came to be so named. Here is a quote from 1606 using the term:
A young girle, married to an old man, doth long to run for her husband ashore at Cuckolds Haven. [Day, Ile of Guis]
There is a West Indian leguminous plant called the cuckold’s-increase.
There is a nautical knot called the cuckold’s knot or cuckold’s neck, which is a knot or loop made in a rope by “crossing it over itself and seizing or binding it together with a cord at the point of crossing. One can only imagine that a bemused and sexually satisfied sailor, arriving back on ship after some profitable shore leave, came up with this coinage.
The word also is found in the forms of cuckoldize, cuckoldom, and even cuckoldly, which is an obsolete adjective used to describe something “having the character or qualities of a cuckold.” Shakespeare used it in the Merry Wives of Windsor (II.ii.281):
Hang him, poore Cuckoldly knave.
So the word cuckold is possessed of distinguished lineage. I remember writing of the cuckold theme a couple of years ago (2013) in an essay on Machiavelli’s great play Mandragola, which I called Machiavelli’s Comic Side. Those unfamiliar with the plot of the play should take a look at this essay, and reflect on how it applies to the current crop of “leaders” we have today.
The Modern Malaise
And if we look around, we can see cuckold nearly everywhere. Last week, the president of the University of Missouri actually resigned from a job paying about $500,000 per year, for no good reason at all. He had proven himself to be a spineless cuckold.
In fact, cuckoldry seems to be one of the defining features of the modern Western condition. The leaders are for the most part spineless worms; and men have been forced to accept encroachments on their identity and masculinity that would have been unheard of 100 years ago.
I laughed for nearly an entire day when I had a ringside seat to author Mike Cernovich’s (@Cernovich) ingenious electronic cuckolding of Seth Rogen, which is recounted in detail here. As far as I can tell, this is the first example of an “electronic cuckold ambush” that has taken place. Oxford English Dictionary editors, take note.
Cuckoldry is deeply ingrained in the modern psyche of the Western male. We must drive out this demon, and replace it with something else.
By way of illustration, I’ll just leave readers with these response Tweets I made last night to one cuckoldish Hollywood celebrity:
Hollywood SJW @MarkRuffalo says we should let the healing and hand-holding begin. Cuck! https://t.co/fV6wKblfam
— Quintus Curtius (@QuintusCurtius) November 14, 2015
Ah, no, @MarkRuffalo the openly stated goal is the conquest of Europe. Wake up, cuck! https://t.co/fV6wKblfam
— Quintus Curtius (@QuintusCurtius) November 14, 2015
Read More: Philology Is A Weapon
