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Permanent link for this word: cuckold

Feb 29, 2012

This week's theme
Words with hidden animals

This week's words
capricious
bucolic
cuckold
lyceum
jubilee

A reed warbler raising the young of a cuckoo

Photo: Per Harald Olsen

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

cuckold

PRONUNCIATION:

(KUHk-uhld)

MEANING:

noun: A man whose wife is unfaithful.
verb tr.: To make a cuckold of a husband.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French cucu (cuckoo) + -ald (pejorative suffix), from the female cuckoo's habit of leaving eggs in another bird's nest. Earliest documented use: 1250.

USAGE:

"Upon release from the trunk of the car, the man told the police that he was kidnapped by the jealous husband of a woman. The alleged cuckold, Ruslan Ivkin denied the motive."
Man Found in Car Trunk; The Moscow Times (Russia); Jan 12, 2012.

See more usage examples of cuckold in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. -Linus Pauling, chemist, peace activist, author, educator; Nobel Prize in chemistry, Nobel Peace Prize (1901-1994)

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